Come the year 2020, you’ll see a Mission Campus transformed: by a “campus within a campus,” designed to foster collaborative exploration to enhance undergraduate student learning and discovery across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). That’s a mouthful, yes. So let’s put it so: There’s no other university in the country doing this for undergraduate students in quite this way—built around ethics and Jesuit values. Though if we inspire others, that would be a fine thing indeed.

“The world today faces some really immense problems,” John A. Sobrato assesses. “We’re talking about climate change, global health, poverty, energy sustainability.” Technical knowledge alone—particularly in one field— isn’t enough to solve these. Hence a need for “really bright minds working across all disciplines to forge solutions together,” in the words of Provost Dennis Jacobs.

Enter a space built with that in mind: in teaching and research, and in areas like neuroscience, bioengineering, and environmental science.

The building will be big—“by far the largest on campus,” Sobrato says. “Three distinct wings, all interconnected.” Take that sense of interconnection as a metaphor. And read more about the vision for the building on the next page. But since buildings and ideas start with people, here’s a little about two people making this possible.

WORK AND FAMILY

A walk through campus and a tour through Silicon Valley will show that, for decades, the Sobratos have been building and shaping both this University and the wider environs that have housed engines of economic growth and world-changing innovation.

“What [John] has done in Silicon Valley has really been incredible,” says his classmate and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta ’60, J.D. ’63, “not only for the high-tech industry but also the construction that he’s done at Santa Clara University.”

John A. Sobrato has focused on commercial development for tech firms since 1974, developing and constructing more than 150 office and research and development facilities.

He is the founder and principal of The Sobrato Organization, based in Cupertino, and he built the iconic Apple headquarters in Cupertino as well as campuses for Siebel, NVIDIA, Netflix, EMC, Verisign, and Yahoo!

John A. and Sue Sobrato wed 56 years ago, and Sue has been an active partner supporting the family’s business and philanthropic pursuits. Raising a family came first for Sue. Giving back to the community where they live mattered deeply, too. This gift comes from the both of them. Their family includes three children—John Michael Sobrato ’83, Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, and Sheri Sobrato Brisson M.A. ’94—and seven grandkids, including several more Santa Clara grads. Since 1997, John M. Sobrato has served as CEO of The Sobrato Organization. The year before that, the family created the Sobrato Family Foundation. In the past 20 years, that foundation has given cash and real estate to support education, health care, human services, and other endeavors—to the tune of $375 million.

BUILDING BLOCKS

Here on campus, along with the counsel and care that the Sobratos have given generously over the years (John A. is a longtime member of the Board of Trustees), gifts from the family made possible the Sobrato Residential Learning Community, Abby Sobrato Mall, and much, much more. They donated $20 million to build the Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center, and Orradre Library, completed in 2008. The new Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation will rise right next door to the library. The $100 million gift that makes it possible is also the largest gift in the family’s history.

But it’s more than a gift. “This beautiful new building that John and Sue are contributing so generously to will be a landmark in the center of campus,” observes President Michael Engh, S.J. “And they’re setting a challenge for others to say, ‘Come join us in this to make Santa Clara an even greater Jesuit Catholic institution.’”

The Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation (SCDI) will be near the heart of campus, between the Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center, and Orradre Library; and the Patricia A. and Stephen C. Schott Admission and Enrollment Services Building. SCDI replaces three engineering buildings as well as Bannan Hall, since law will have a new home.

2018

construction begins

300,000

square feet and 3 connected wings

Describe It.

Open and transparent, with lots of glass and natural light, with “some of the architectural details that everybody loves about Santa Clara,” John A. Sobrato says. “The same architectural vocabulary you recognize—but a modern version.”

It’s also a state of mind. It’s innovation that can improve the world, so you can’t stand still. Your structures, your buildings, have to keep pace with that, too. If you’re talking about a subject such as bioengineering, you have to have a grounding in biology and in engineering—together. This new facility is one more way we enable students to contribute to the good of the Valley, especially facing critical ethical issues.
—Michael E. Engh, S.J., President, SCU

Design & Build.

Portland-based ZGF Architects—Architect Magazine’s Firm of the Year and top firm for sustainability in 2016—designed it. The company is working in partnership with lab-design experts Research Facilities Design of San Diego. Devcon Construction, headed by Gary Filizetti ’67, MBA ’69, will build it.

What’s Inside?

Collaborative spaces in many flavors: from spaces designated for projects of all types—wet projects, dry projects, dirty projects, in the parlance of science and engineering. And also makerspaces in which students can pursue open-ended projects, plus flexible laboratory and classroom spaces. Transparent glass walls connect much of the building visually. Along with academic disciplines, you’ll find the Frugal Innovation Hub and Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship.