Where Is The Headquarters Of Facebook Located?
The headquarters of Facebook is along 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park, CA 94025 within the Silicon Valley. Facebook refers to this headquarters as the main campus or Menlo Park Campus building 20 (MPK20). The company moved into the campus in 2015. The city of Menlo Park lies to the eastern end of San Mateo County in San Francisco Bay Area. Facebook headquarters is part of the Silicon Valley technology, venture capital, and innovation giants that includes Google. Silicon Valley is in Santa Clara Valley, an area in the southern part of San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California.
Facts About Facebook Headquarters
Famed architect Frank Gehry designed the office space of this campus that measures 430,000 square feet. He also sought the help of fifteen local artists to design and paint interior spaces. The headquarters has the largest open floor office plan in the world, a trend with technology companies to foster collaboration among employees. A complete tour of the facility takes up to two hours with a stopover for a meal or refreshments. Facebook went for elegant furnishings at the office complex that includes futuristic furniture, Adirondack chairs, transparent meeting rooms, artwork, and stairwells.
There is also a rooftop park (green roof) measuring nine acres. The rooftop park has a garden, 400 trees, over 100,000 native plants, a giant swinging teepee, maps to help people know their location, and a half a mile walking and jogging loop among other things. There are also enough spaces for group exercises on this LEED-certified building and Facebook hopes local birds will find a haven on the roof. This roof also acts as a heat insulator, therefore, lowering Facebook’s cooling and heating costs. Facebook employees are some of the most privileged in terms of workspace freedom. All staff have access to a version of a vending machine that, instead of serving snacks, it serves electronics like cables, adapters, earphones, and batteries with just a swipe of staff ID card. There is also free food for staff and a gaming room open to employees and visitors alike. Finally, employees have bicycles to move around the expansive facility.
The Headquarters’ Goal
Mark Zuckerberg always had a dream of connecting people and, seemingly, since starting the company, he continues to aim at this goal in all aspects of the company. This dream manifests in this open-plan headquarters. The space fits 2,800 workers, including Zuckerberg whose office is in the middle of the facility. The few people in management who need offices have glass-walled ones. According to Zuckerberg, the MPK20 reflects Facebook’s mission of connecting people by creating an enabling environment for people to collaborate and innovate together. Also, unlike most technology companies that prioritize privacy, Facebook often invites visitors who walk around the office space freely as staff go about with their work. Furthermore, Facebook encourages its employees to design their workspaces to their liking so that they can be free and productive.
Other Facebook Offices
From 2003 to date, Facebook evolved from a dorm room at Harvard University as its only office to having many offices globally. In the US, there are offices in Atlanta (GA), Austin (TX), Palo Alto (CA), Chicago (IL), Dallas (TX), Detroit (MI), Los Angeles (CA), New York (NY), Seattle (WA), and Washington (DC) among others. To avoid US taxes, all Facebook users outside the US and Canada sign contract from Dublin’s Facebook Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of the US-based company. The Irish system allows Facebook to pay not more than 3% corporation tax. The other Facebook offices and research centers are in Hyderabad (India), Luleå (Sweden), London (UK), Sydney (Australia), Tel Aviv (Israel), Toronto (Canada), Hamburg (Germany), Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), Paris (France), Stockholm (Sweden), and Tokyo (Japan).
