The new complex will appear across the road from the existing one, and will connect them with an underground corridor. If the current headquarters of Facebook is located in the former campus of Sun Microsystems in Palo Alto, then its new part (an area of 8.9 hectares) will already be on the territory of the neighboring city of Menlo Park.
Back in August 2012, it was announced that FB founder Mark Zuckerberg had commissioned Frank Gehry to design the new campus. At the same time, the first version of the project was published - a rather restrained composition by the standards of this architect of 5 buildings with a green roof uniting them. A winding path for walking was laid along this roof.
But the option presented to the Menlo Park City Council was much more modest. The long, low-rise building will be difficult to distinguish from office parks common in Silicon Valley, which resemble workshops or barracks. As it turned out, the project was corrected at the request of the customer: in his opinion, the first version was too bright and noticeable, but something “anonymous”, not attracting attention, modest, “in an industrial spirit” is needed. This approach is consistent with the corporate culture of the company.
We are talking about a building with a total area of 40,000 m2, where there is a parking lot for 1540 cars on the ground floor, the main and mezzanine floors are higher, but the roof will retain the winding path and oaks that were originally conceived. Greenery in the surrounding area and on the roof will hide the facades of the building, where glazing is combined with plastered concrete walls. Some parts of the building will reach a height of 22 m, but in general it will not exceed 14 m.
Gehry Partners bureau partner Craig Webb told reporters that Frank Gehry himself was quite willing to "tone down the expression of architecture" in his project.
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