Tech

A Tour Of Facebook's Disneyland-Inspired Campus Where The Shops And Restaurants Are Free

Julie Bort

2013-10-13T12:00:00Z

Business Insider/Julie Bort

Facebook is in the process of building a $120 million, 394-unit housing complex for its employees near its Menlo Park, Calif. offices.

Advertisement

Company housing may sound strange in this modern day. But once you've seen Facebook's fantastical, Disney-inspired Menlo Park headquarters, opened in May, 2012, the plan make sense.

The campus was designed to look like a cross between Main Street Disneyland and downtown Palo Alto (the quaint town where Facebook got its start).

The campus is filled with shops, like a real town. The next logical step would be housing.

Advertisement

Here's the highway sign that indicates you've arrived at Facebook's Menlo Park campus. The campus is in the heart of the Valley, but surrounded by open space, so it feels like it's out in the country.

Facebook campus visit 02

Oddly, this doesn't look like a corporate campus. It looks like an apartment complex.

Facebook campus visit 03

Advertisement

That's because, it's really a cluster of buildings. Enter one and walk through it and you arrive at ...

Facebook campus

... a hidden town, complete with shops and a main street. This used to be a Sun Microsystems campus. Facebook hired two consultants from Disney to make it look like a town.

Facebook campus main street

Advertisement

On this day, Facebook was launching a 24-hour hackathon. Lots of products came from hackathons including Facebook Chat and the new Facebook WiFi launched with Cisco. People gather by the yellow crane ...

Facebook campus visit 04

... because the crane is the traditional gathering place for hackathons. Hackathon leaders Pedram Keyani and Bob Baldwin explain the rules: Don't work on your day job. Don't be afraid to experiment even if your creation fails.

Facebook campus visit 05

Advertisement

Here's a 'secret' about the crane: Facebook found it in the basement of the former building they leased in Palo Alto and they snuck off with it when they moved into their new headquarters.

Facebook campus visit 06

This pedestrian crosswalk, painted Golden Gate orange, was built as a fantasy. In Palo Alto, when Facebook grew to two buildings, employees had to cross a busy street. They wished for a crosswalk, so on their own campus, they built one.

Facebook campus visit 56

Advertisement

This is the main plaza. The giant screen flashes various mottos. Look down at the ground ...

Facebook campus visit 09

... the gray and white stripes are letters. They spell out "Hack" and you can see it from space or an airplane. (Go back to Slide 3 and see for yourself.)

Facebook campus visit 10

Advertisement

Because Facebook wants its campus to look like Palo Alto ...

Facebook campus visit 11

... there's a lot of fun, fancy architecture on the buildings. This doesn't really look like Palo Alto, but there's a definite vibe here.

Facebook campus visit 12

Advertisement

The buildings even have garages with real garage doors. The garages host temporary offices for group hacking projects.

Facebook campus visit 50

Facebook has nine restaurants and serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner Monday-Friday. All of them are free except the sushi place (and Facebook subsidizes that) and a Philz Coffee shop, a hang-out from the Palo Alto days.

Facebook campus visit 13

Advertisement

The main eatery is called the Epic Cafe.

Facebook Epic Cafe

Epic is famous for its floor, which is designed like a computer circuit board. The main processor says "Eat."

Facebook campus visit 14

Advertisement

We gave Google a hard time for putting "Google" on everything, even its drink coolers. Facebook puts the word "Hack" on everything. But here's a drink cooler in the Epic labeled Facebook lest you forget where you are.

Facebook campus visit 15

The main campus isn't just trying to be cute. Shops are for useful errands. Like a health center where you can see a doctor ...

Facebook campus visit 16

Advertisement

... a bank ...

Facebook campus visit 17

... a barber ...

Facebook campus visit 45

Advertisement

... a music studio to play and take lessons ...

Facebook campus visit 46

... and a video arcade. All free.

Facebook campus visit 52

Advertisement

For the artists, there's a full-service graphics design shop cutely called the Analog Research Lab.

Facebook campus visit 21

It prints up all of the flyers with Facebook mottos, as well as signs, T-shirts, and other stuff.

Facebook campus visit 22

Advertisement

Because Facebook is a company filled with engineers who like to build things, there's also a complete woodworking shop.

Facebook campus visit 23

Full-time builders will teach others. They also make stuff for the campus like shelves and garbage can surrounds.

Facebook campus visit 24

Advertisement

One employee was in the wood shop building kitchen cabinets for his house.

Facebook campus visit 25

Maybe the best perk of all is free laundry and free dry cleaning. Just drop it off and pick it up.

Facebook campus visit 30

Advertisement

The most popular shop is the Sweet Stop.

Facebook campus visit 18

All the food on campus (even the bread) is homemade. This shop has homemade ice cream, yogurt, candy, pastries. New employees often suffer from the "Facebook 15." Free food makes them gain weight.

Facebook campus visit 19

Advertisement

You don't have to eat at a free restaurant. You could use the micro-kitchens filled with snacks.

Facebook campus visit 26

Employees normally work at long tables in open rooms.

Facebook campus visit 39

Advertisement

If you've been hit with the Facebook 15 you can do penance in these glass rooms with treadmill desks.

Facebook campus visit 38

With cement floors and exposed florescent lighting, some offices have an industrial feel.

Facebook campus visit 36

Advertisement

But there is art everywhere, like this table in a micro kitchen. The art is mostly from employees and the Analog Research Lab.

Facebook campus visit 27

There is also a lot of writing on the wall ...

Facebook campus visit 28

Advertisement

... it's all part of an inside joke, where people can write on the actual Facebook Wall (get it? The "Wall" is what Facebook used to call your Facebook page before they rolled out Timeline).

Facebook campus visit 31

Here's a close up of what one person wrote on the Facebook Wall.

Facebook campus visit 32

Advertisement

Sometimes, employees use the wall to post photos, too. This is a private joke about an employee named John McKearnan.

Facebook campus visit 35

A few art installations are from professionals, like this one. An engineer asked the artist what it represented. The artist said, "Coding." The engineer shook his head and said ...

Facebook campus visit 33

Advertisement

... "That's not code. This is code," and he gave him a snippet of real code used by Facebook. And that's how this real Facebook code got onto this wall.

Facebook campus visit 34

Humor is everywhere. Here's a phone booth with a superman cape.

Facebook campus visit 37

Advertisement

This little hang-out space is actually in the middle of a large room. Note the figurines on the table.

Facebook campus visit 40

This is something ingenious. People work all hours at Facebook, but IT doesn't. If employees need tech supplies like batteries, chargers, headphones, they can get them off hours from vending machines all over campus. The supplies are free, but Facebook shows how much they cost.

Facebook campus visit 29

Advertisement

Another way to get rid of the Freshman 15 is to ride a bike to work. You don't have to buy one. Facebook loans bikes to its employees.

Facebook campus visit 20

Naturally, that means there's a full-service bike shop on campus too.

Facebook campus visit 41

Advertisement

They'll tune your bike, fix a flat, help you upgrade parts, or let you use the tools yourself.

Facebook campus visit 42

The bike shop's vending machine has bike parts like tire tubes, brake pads, chain links.

Facebook campus visit 44

Advertisement

New Menlo Park Facebook legends have begun like this yellow brick road. Building maintenance saw pictures on Facebook of people cutting across the grass here so they built a brick path. Someone painted it yellow ...

Facebook campus visit 48

Someone else added the Wizard of Oz house complete with dead witch and ruby red slippers.

Facebook campus visit 49

Advertisement

The newest legend is the Facebook foxes. A fox mom gave birth to some cubs in the center of town and they became the Facebook mascots.

Facebook campus visit 47

Facebook is truly living in its own, very nice little world.

Facebook campus visit 53

Advertisement

Facebook hardware labs 05

A Rare Tour Of Facebook's Hardware Labs And The Amazing Stuff It Builds There »

Facebook

Advertisement

Jump to