White Plaza - The Claw and Campus Life
A stop on Stanford University Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.
Just south of the Main Quad, White Plaza is Stanford's everyday crossroads. Student groups set up tables here, bikes stream past, and the campus bookstore and Tresidder student union sit at its edges. If you want to know what students care about this week, read the flyers.
The big branching fountain is officially the White Memorial Fountain, but nearly everyone calls it The Claw. Sculptor Aristides Demetrios won a national competition for the design in 1963, and it was dedicated in 1964. It was given by Raymond B. White and his wife in memory of their sons, William and John, Stanford students who died in separate accidents before they could graduate. Demetrios returned to restore it in 2011; it has 65 jets.
The Claw is also the stage for one of Stanford's rowdier traditions. Before the Big Game against Cal, students perch a teddy bear standing in for Berkeley's mascot on top of the fountain, and the water is dyed red.
Getting here: Leave the Main Quad on its south side and walk about 250 meters to the plaza with the big branching fountain.
Did you know?: Fountain hopping, a splashy tour of campus fountains on warm days, is a long-loved Stanford tradition, and The Claw is one of its favorite stops.
Photo op: Get low and shoot up through the fountain's curving arms with open sky behind them.
More on Wikipedia: White Memorial Fountain · Big Game
Stops on this tour
- The Oval and Palm Drive - A Grand Front Door
- Bing Concert Hall - Every Seat Close to the Music
- Cantor Arts Center - A Museum Born of Grief
- Arizona Cactus Garden - A House That Never Was
- Rodin Sculpture Garden - Facing The Gates of Hell
- Engineering Quad - Where Ideas Get Built
- Memorial Church - Gold, Glass and a Fallen Spire
- White Plaza - The Claw and Campus Life
- Hoover Tower - A Library Standing on End
- Main Quad and Memorial Court - Where It All Began