4 ms·

One functional use of the building is that it will attract top employees. I would rather spend ~1/4 of my time in a really nice building than what some competit

One functional use of the building is that it will attract top employees. I would rather spend ~1/4 of my time in a really nice building than what some competitors use.

dogruck 9y ago
Perhaps. Certainly a good building is better than a bad one. Indisputable. But everything has a trade off. I’d trade for higher pay or more commercial projects.
bla2 9y ago
Meh, it's still open office. The campus looks nice, but design is how it works.
- ChuckMcM 9y ago
  They go out of their way to describe the segments as "configurable" with "everything from open plan to individual offices." I makes me wonder if initial reactions caught them by surprise.
- sbuk 9y ago
  Engineering is how it works, design/architecture is about solving the problem leading to the engineered solution.
deleted 9y ago
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ACow_Adonis 9y ago
To each their own, but for contrasting feedback, I could almost feel my anxiety rising just looking at a big giant corporate open office. I think wired hit on something when they called it a design out of the 1950's. Its a suburban corporate office park. A white, glass, and wood suburban corporate office park, but a suburban corporate office park none the less. Edit: I am witholding my judgement of the actual space until 6 months after its inhabited though, because I'm not sure I can be objective about it at this stage...
nkkollaw 9y ago
Lots of employees complained and said they would rather find another job than work in an open space.
Theodores 9y ago
Mclaren have a similar type of building albeit on a smaller scale. I would definitely think about giving it a go there, but, then again, would I prefer the Williams team up the road where vision and leadership is not mixed up with impressive building design? I don't know, but I think the McLaren building has worked out nicely for them. Working there might not be to everyone's tastes but they set the standard for how it is done and the rest of the industry took note. Some of the buildings in North Korea are quite amazing and the subway system is a work of art, immaculately clean. Working in the parts they show Westerners should be a true joy with the most pleasant of traffic free commutes. However I would not feel entirely free working in North Korea, being deprived of the Internet would matter to me and I would not feel happy 'cut off'. I imagine working at the wonderful Apple HQ to be slightly cultish in the North Korean way rather than the McLaren way. Perhaps I prefer smaller churches in smaller towns. Or maybe I am more interested in FOSS and computing in general rather than the intricacies of doing things the Apple way. The old SGI building as used by Google, that has things one can criticise but that building has survived the test of time. Many wonderful things have happened in this building but ultimately it is just a building and not a sacred shrine. The Apple building sort of crosses into 'sacred shrine' territory that will always be entwined with the memory of the founding story.
- tonyedgecombe 9y ago
  I did some work for McLaren a few years ago, it struck me at the time that the building was really a reflection of their own culture. I think it would have been impossible for them not to apply the attention to detail in that building that they did.

One functional use of the building is that it will attract top employees. I would rather spend ~1/4 of my time in a really nice building than what some competitors use.

dogruck 9y ago

Perhaps. Certainly a good building is better than a bad one. Indisputable. But everything has a trade off. I’d trade for higher pay or more commercial projects.

bla2 9y ago

Meh, it's still open office. The campus looks nice, but design is how it works.

ChuckMcM 9y ago
They go out of their way to describe the segments as "configurable" with "everything from open plan to individual offices." I makes me wonder if initial reactions caught them by surprise.
sbuk 9y ago
Engineering is how it works, design/architecture is about solving the problem leading to the engineered solution.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

ACow_Adonis 9y ago

To each their own, but for contrasting feedback, I could almost feel my anxiety rising just looking at a big giant corporate open office. I think wired hit on something when they called it a design out of the 1950's. Its a suburban corporate office park. A white, glass, and wood suburban corporate office park, but a suburban corporate office park none the less. Edit: I am witholding my judgement of the actual space until 6 months after its inhabited though, because I'm not sure I can be objective about it at this stage...

nkkollaw 9y ago

Lots of employees complained and said they would rather find another job than work in an open space.

Theodores 9y ago

Mclaren have a similar type of building albeit on a smaller scale. I would definitely think about giving it a go there, but, then again, would I prefer the Williams team up the road where vision and leadership is not mixed up with impressive building design? I don't know, but I think the McLaren building has worked out nicely for them. Working there might not be to everyone's tastes but they set the standard for how it is done and the rest of the industry took note. Some of the buildings in North Korea are quite amazing and the subway system is a work of art, immaculately clean. Working in the parts they show Westerners should be a true joy with the most pleasant of traffic free commutes. However I would not feel entirely free working in North Korea, being deprived of the Internet would matter to me and I would not feel happy 'cut off'. I imagine working at the wonderful Apple HQ to be slightly cultish in the North Korean way rather than the McLaren way. Perhaps I prefer smaller churches in smaller towns. Or maybe I am more interested in FOSS and computing in general rather than the intricacies of doing things the Apple way. The old SGI building as used by Google, that has things one can criticise but that building has survived the test of time. Many wonderful things have happened in this building but ultimately it is just a building and not a sacred shrine. The Apple building sort of crosses into 'sacred shrine' territory that will always be entwined with the memory of the founding story.

tonyedgecombe 9y ago
I did some work for McLaren a few years ago, it struck me at the time that the building was really a reflection of their own culture. I think it would have been impossible for them not to apply the attention to detail in that building that they did.