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New tech palaces: visionary HQs, or cursed trophies?
A model of Frank Gehry’s new Facebook headquarters. / FACEBOOK
Campus. Tech companies construct their own buildings that match the way they work. While much of corporate America is retrenching on the real estate front, the four most influential technology companies in America are each planning headquarters that could win a Pritzker Architecture Prize for hubris. Amazon.com on Friday revealed plans for three verdant bubbles in downtown Seattle, joining Apple’s circular “spaceship,” Facebook’s Frank Gehry-designed openoffice complex and a new Googleplex on the list of
planned trophy offices. “It signals a desire, a statement, to say that we’re special, we’re different. We have changed the world and we are going to continue to change it,” said Margaret O’Mara, associate professor of history at the University of Washington, who has written about the building of Silicon Valley. “It’s also a reflection of robust bank accounts. They have a lot of cash.” Historically, however, when a company becomes preoccupied with the grandeur of its premises, it often signals a high point in its fortunes. These fantastical buildings may end up as little more than costly monuments to vanity and a loss of focus on the core business that made
for success in the first place. “I’ve been thinking the Apple spaceship is going to get nicknamed the ‘Death Star’ because the project is so big and the timing is so bad,” said hedge fund manager Jeff Matthews of Ram Partners. The building is coming to fruition just as Apple’s product cycles may be maturing, he explained. “It is such a classic contrary indicator that you just get the shakes.” He no longer holds Apple stock. REUTERS
skyscrapers that will house a rapidly growing workforce in downtown Seattle. Google Inc. has outgrown its original headquarters in Silicon Valley’s Mountain View and is planning to build a 1.1 million square foot Googleplex nearby. Called Bay View, it will have nine rectangular build-
ings, horizontally bent, with living roofs surrounded by courtyards and connected by bridges. No employee will be more than a two-and-a-halfminute walk away from any colleague, a design aimed at encouraging collaboration. A Google spokeswoman declined further comment.
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Apple has the most ambitious idea, a 2.8-million-square-foot glass ring on 176 acres. It would be in part a monument to former CEO Steve Jobs.
Building a future
Elite design projects for tech companies Amazon’s design, presented to Seattle city planners last week, includes three steel and glass spheres almost 100 feet high, which will serve as the centerpiece for three new
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