Facebook is expanding its corporate head office in Palo Alto, California. The social media giant has enlisted world-renowned architect Frank Ghery to lead the design. Plans for the west campus extension submitted today include a 420,000 sq. ft. single-story warehouse complete with a full rooftop garden and extensive landscaping.
“Frank has taken into account our engineering culture,” said Everett Katigbak, Facebook’s Environmental Design Engineer, in a blog post. “It will be a large, one room building that somewhat resembles a warehouse… The raw, unfinished look of our buildings means we can construct them quickly.”
Gehry’s “Dancing House”, Prague
Eighty-three-year-old Gehry has an impressive resume of completed projects, including the Guggenheim Museum in Spain, Dancing House in Prague, Art Galley of Ontario in Toronto and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A.
Ground-breaking for the eco-friendly new site is set for early 2013 and when it’s completed, Facebook hopes to fill it with 3,400 engineers. They will maintain their current campus and use an underground tunnel to connect the two.
I actually had the opportunity to visit the Dancing House in Prague in June. Here’s an Instagram shot I took of it. The picture barely does it justice. It’s modern architecture style stood out like crazy in a city as old as Prague, but it truly was remarkable to see in person.
Looking forward to seeing how the Facebook campus turns out!
