Foothill College Campus Walk

This self-guided walk takes you around Foothill College, the community college that has crowned two hilltops in Los Altos Hills since 1961. Over about an hour and ten stops, you will see where students get started, study, find tutoring, perform, play sports and look at the stars. Along the way you will learn the story of a campus that designers still study: low redwood buildings, shake roofs and linked courtyards planned by architect Ernest J. Kump with landscape architects Sasaki, Walker and Associates.

The tour is a loop on foot. It starts in the Lower Campus courtyard by Admissions and Records, just above Lot 8 off El Monte Road, climbs to the main hilltop, crosses the footbridge to the athletics hill, then visits the library, the science buildings, the planetarium and observatory and the Japanese Cultural Center before ending near where you began. Expect stairs and some steep paths; the college map shows accessible routes and elevators. Check posted signs and the college website for parking rules. Most stops are seen from outside, and buildings keep their own hours.

10 stops on this tour:

Lower Campus - Where Every Owl Starts

Smithwick Theatre - A Stage for a Founder

Campus Center - The Hilltop Crossroads

Footbridge and Athletics Hill - Two Hilltops

Semans Library - Books, Tutors and the Quad

STEM Center - Help with the Hard Problems

Space Science Center - Planetarium and Telescopes

Physical Sciences and Engineering Center - A New Quad

Japanese Cultural Center - Tea and Bamboo

Language Arts and KFJC - Radio on the Hill

Stops on this tour

1. Lower Campus - Where Every Owl Starts
2. Smithwick Theatre - A Stage for a Founder
3. Campus Center - The Hilltop Crossroads
4. Footbridge and Athletics Hill - Two Hilltops
5. Semans Library - Books, Tutors and the Quad
6. STEM Center - Help with the Hard Problems
7. Space Science Center - Planetarium and Telescopes
8. Physical Sciences and Engineering Center - A New Quad
9. Japanese Cultural Center - Tea and Bamboo
10. Language Arts and KFJC - Radio on the Hill

More tours nearby

• Stanford University Campus Walk (5 mi) - Palm-lined arrivals, sandstone arches, Rodin bronzes and a landmark tower on a walking loop through the heart of Stanford.
• Silicon Valley Tech Heritage Tour (6 mi) - Where Innovation Became History
• Menlo College Campus Walk (8 mi) - A one-hour loop around a small Silicon Valley college: where students study, eat, play and live, and the stories behind the buildings.
• Canada College Campus Walk (10 mi) - An hour on a hillside community college in Redwood City: student services, the library, science labs, a theater, two pools and olive trees.

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