frank gehry designs new facebook campus image © frank gehry / gehry partners
in the midst of facebook‘s plans to expand their corporate head office in palo alto, california, the social networking company has commissioned architect frank gehry to design an entirely new west campus in menlo park on a 22 acre site. based on a community-like environment that will host a park atmosphere, where a grass roof with a variety of native trees will become accessible by foot, the new development will connect to the current east headquarters via a tunnel, where the path will create a transit route for cyclists and pedestrians walking beneath the bay-front expressway.
the building itself will be a 10 acre (approximately 435 600 square feet) warehouse-type layout that will allow for employees to sit out in the open with desks that can be quickly shuffled around as teams form and break apart around projects. with construction planned to start in 2013, the new west campus addition will house approximately 6,000 people in the next five years, with over 1/3 being engineers. the new eco-friendly space will accommodate a series of outdoor cafes, barbecues, workbenches to complement the surrounding roof-top garden.
proposed model of the new facebook campus in menlo park, palo alto image © frank gehry / gehry partners
top view of the new facebook campus model in menlo park image © frank gehry / gehry partners
mark zuckerberg discussing plans with frank gehry image © frank gehry / gehry partners
plan view of menlo park with the two campuses
proposed site plan
current site plan
proposed tunnel system to connect campuses
FRANK GEHRY (81)
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ll11 Sep 01, 2012 Tom Parrett Sep 01, 2012 archic Sep 01, 2012 @drien Aug 30, 2012 P Jakob Aug 29, 2012
more commentszuckerberg’s tush does look cute in those jeans…
It’s hard to judge a model, but looks like Apple’s new infinite loop HQ by Norman Foster is a lot more imaginative, suggestive of Apple’s creative leadership, and possibly an aid to innovation by the way it stimulates movement and flow throughout the building.
This seems like a village that’s emerged naturally, which is the way a facebook account starts and grows, of course. But it looks as if it might lead to dispersion, with units and teams isolated from each other.
The choice of Gehry is odd. He’s mainly known for wonderful concert halls and a few remarkable apartment buildings, not campuses or urban planning. I would have chosen, say, Diller + Scofidio or maybe Renzo Piano.
How can 2 pathetic individuals produce something of interest? Let’s not waste our time here?
Flat, huge, as creative than an average shopping mall.
Probably the result of two great minds spoiling a very interesting potential project.
Zuckerberg is not an Architect.
Gehry is maybe too old.
This project is really bad, who can build, with the power of facebook, a flat parking lot ?
Look at Herzog & de Meuron’s parking Lot round the corner of Lincoln road Miami.
They probably missed something at the basis of this project : What does Facebook want to tell us about their future ?
Why is frank gehry still getting work? Zucker might be too young too realize…