Facebook Designing New Campus

#1

Post by michael_fine » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 1:27 AM UTC

Facebook Designing New Campus
facebook.com

Re: Facebook Designing New Campus

#2

Post by fourspace » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 1:52 AM UTC

This will most certainly be interesting to watch. My visceral reaction to the idea of one giant room was, "Wow. No thanks." I'm not personally the biggest fan of Frank Gehry's work, either.

That said, I'm always a little bit excited when people push architectural boundaries, especially when it comes to workspaces. Hopefully my friends at Facebook will still be around when this is completed.

Re: Facebook Designing New Campus

#3

Post by holman » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:07 AM UTC

fourspace wrote: post #2

This will most certainly be interesting to watch. My visceral reaction to the idea of one giant room was, "Wow. No thanks." I'm not personally the biggest fan of Frank Gehry's work, either. That said, I'm always a little bit excited when people push architectural boundaries, especially when it comes to workspaces. Hopefully my friends at Facebook will still be around when this is completed.

My visceral reaction to the idea of one giant room was "Rad". Love open floor plans.

I'm really curious what the final interior plan will look like; presumably it's not some huge airplane hanger of openness but some clever way of staying open-while-interesting.

Like you, though, I'm just excited at the prospect of larger companies doing something different. Should be fun to watch.

Re: Facebook Designing New Campus

#4

Post by ricardonunez » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:08 AM UTC

Some of Frank Gehry's designs definitely look like the Facebook stock.

Re: Facebook Designing New Campus

#5

Post by dsr_ » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:09 AM UTC

I wouldn't say that this is the worst possibly use of Facebook's money, but I would rank it up there.

Building a new HQ is largely an exercise in vanity and boasting. There is almost always an existing building that would serve just fine, otherwise.

"The largest open floor plan in the world"? Oy. I hope they hire some good acoustics folks before they finish the planning stages.

Re: Facebook Designing New Campus

#6

Post by suyash » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:15 AM UTC

Old Sun campus too small for these guys already?

Re: Facebook Designing New Campus

#7

Post by robryan » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:15 AM UTC

dsr_ wrote: post #5

I wouldn't say that this is the worst possibly use of Facebook's money, but I would rank it up there. Building a new HQ is largely an exercise in vanity and boasting. There is almost always an existing building that would serve just fine, otherwise. "The largest open floor plan in the world"? Oy. I hope they hire some good acoustics folks before they finish the planning stages.

Would you say the same thing about Apple's building or is that different as they have more money to spend?

I think it may be worth it, a big part of hiring the best talent now is creating an environment that they enjoy rather than dread being in. Not that the open plan office is for everyone.

Re: Facebook Designing New Campus

#8

Post by sudonim » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:40 AM UTC

Having worked with smaller teams in open plans, and now being in a coworking space, I have to say, I don't like it. It's really easy to get distracted by the smallest movement around you, or someone having a phone call, or two people laughing. I don't think cube farms are necessarily the answer either, but without serious consideration for noise dampening, the "one giant room" will be a pretty big distraction.

Re: Facebook Designing New Campus

#9

Post by staunch » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:42 AM UTC

Every time I'm reminded of just how many programmers Facebook has it bothers me that he missed such a cool opportunity. He gets programming better than probably any BigCo tech CEO and yet he made the same damn mistake of hiring thousands upon thousands of programmers instead of just getting the 10X Programmers and having 1/10th as many while paying them 2x as much.

Imagine if the budget for this 5000 person building was spent to house 500 people. It could make Google's campuses look downright spartan. It would make everything else a distant second choice for most people.

Re: Facebook Designing New Campus

#10

Post by kabdib » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 2:42 AM UTC

dsr_ wrote: post #5

I wouldn't say that this is the worst possibly use of Facebook's money, but I would rank it up there. Building a new HQ is largely an exercise in vanity and boasting. There is almost always an existing building that would serve just fine, otherwise. "The largest open floor plan in the world"? Oy. I hope they hire some good acoustics folks before they finish the planning stages.

It's amusing to correlate "new campus" with "stock drop" in the history of Silly Valley.

Atari, Apple, Sun, Cisco . . . these companies all had significant hard times about the time they started large new sets of buildings.