7 ms·

Inside Dropbox’s Urbanized San Francisco Offices

47 points by tlongren 13y ago

beaker52 13y ago
/.
thesis 13y ago
That's an awful lot of ping pong balls.
- bandy 13y ago
  Mr. Moose isn't using them anymore.
citricsquid 13y ago
There's a fantastic blog dedicated to company offices called Office Snapshots that may tickle the fancy of those that like the Dropbox office: http://officesnapshots.com/ http://officesnapshots.com/
- tlongren 13y ago
  Cool. Thanks!
- ubercore 13y ago
  They even cover this office (without errors!): http://officesnapshots.com/2013/06/05/inside-dropboxs-urbanized-san-francisco-offices/ http://officesnapshots.com/2013/06/05/inside-dropboxs-urbani...
  - stevesearer 13y ago
    I run Office Snapshots and it's pretty safe to say that Next Ventured "borrowed" the original post :)
    - shiftpgdn 13y ago
      I'd seriously recommend filing a DMCA against them. Your intellectual property is one of the most important things you own.
    - dredmorbius 13y ago
      Protip: that 'position:fixed' header on your site is one of the web annoyances that prompts me to fire up Stylebot and nuke the element from your site. Stop doing stupid shit like that. Especially on 16:9 laptop displays, anything that eats vertical real estate gets nuked. #header { display: none; } #main { padding-top: 0; }
      - stevesearer 13y ago
        Thanks for the feedback, I had no idea anyone would be bothered by it. It seemed that leaving access to the menu that allows for readers to more quickly and easily browse the site was a positive thing. That style of menu is all over. Is your annoyance particularly on blogs that use them, or on any site?
        dredmorbius 13y ago
        Anywhere. With Stylish as a plugin on my browser, it's become disgustingly easy for me to attack annoyances. Including FWIW, Hacker News itself: http://stylebot.me/styles/2945 http://stylebot.me/styles/2945 Buzzfeed was particularly fun: https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/G6pzJBLKuir https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/G6pzJBLK... NY Times and Edge Perspectives: https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/NUMQuQUhM2y https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/NUMQuQUh... Basically: if it moves, is fixed, is an interstitial, or is just plain annoying, I kill the hell out of it. And with Stylebot, the easy stuff is just point, click, and "Hide". Then it's gone. Bring it on.
rdl 13y ago
I was disappointed to not see a single actual work area -- just the conference rooms and such. I assume the work areas will be SF startup standard huge open rooms full of lines of back-to-back desks?
- lnanek2 13y ago
  Well you saw more than me, all i get to see is "Service Temporarily Unavailable". That's a pretty sensitive area for startups, besides. Stars like Joel say offices and quiet are worth the costs many times over, but startups are usually too cash starved and self punishing to actually do it. One startup I was at for a while, Noom, even lied and checked the boxes on the Joel test in job ads for quiet working environment being a huge priority when in actuality everyone was stuffed back to back in open rooms and noisy as heck. The CTO said it was fine to lie as long as interviewees saw the reality once they got there and that fewer people would apply if they told the truth, ha.
  - rdl 13y ago
    My ideal office remains something like Pioneer Way in MV where you can get a 20-30k sf dedicated standalone building for $1/mo NNN, and then have 4 parking spots per 1000 feet in a gated lot. If you put 25-75 people in a place like that, you could have a lot of dedicated function areas (various labs, datacenter, kitchen, presentation/theater, etc.), meeting areas, open work areas, and private offices. Throw in subscribing to bauer employee bus services for the minority without cars, and having on-site quality food (or walking 10 minutes to Castro St), and it'd be pretty ideal. Dealing with Mountain View rather than SF government is a big win, too. Downside would be "crappy view".
- topherjaynes 13y ago
  same thought, cool common areas, but where are the workspaces?
- stevesearer 13y ago
  I run Office Snapshots, which originally published the Dropbox office. I get this question fairly regularly, and there are a number of reasons that can contribute to the common lack of workspace photos. - The design firm submitting the project didn't work on the workstation portion of the office, and therefore does not take photos of them - Professional photos are generally taken after the company has moved in, and workstation photos are too difficult to do when there may be confidential information present. These photo shoots can take many hours, so disrupting employees for a day is not what companies are interested in. - Workstations are just not as sexy as conference spaces to show off (I disagree, though) All that said, I like to use foursquare or instagram to browse photos taken at offices to get a real look at the spaces. Here's a couple photos of the workstations: - https://foursquare.com/v/dropbox-hq/4f3970aee4b08f009b927739/photos?openPhotoId=504a7976e4b0838e2febc5b8 https://foursquare.com/v/dropbox-hq/4f3970aee4b08f009b927739... - https://foursquare.com/v/dropbox-hq/4f3970aee4b08f009b927739/photos?openPhotoId=4f7b48ffe4b07999dd0b2a1c https://foursquare.com/v/dropbox-hq/4f3970aee4b08f009b927739...
binxbolling 13y ago
Um, isn't it a little weird to have meeting space labeled "Romance Room" and so on? Seems juvenile at worst—"har har look who's in there together now, bro!"—and at best just stupidly awkward and pointless.
- endlessvoid94 13y ago
  It's only juvenile if the people behave that way -- nobody there does. You're projecting.
  - binxbolling 13y ago
    But what's the value or the point? What am I missing? Why would I want to, say, have a serious 1:1 with my boss in a Romance Room? Maybe I'm too old for this level of "whimsy"...?
    - staunch 13y ago
      No, you're right, it's just lame.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - diminoten 13y ago
    Could this argument be applied to a room called, "Coworker Fuck Room"? I mean, it's just a room name, so it's only juvenile if the people behave that way, right? I could see it as the "go-to" room for pitching new ideas (so you can "romance" someone into liking your idea), but the "break up" room makes less sense. Since when do you want to broadcast that you're "breaking up" with a person or idea with a specific room? It's just a room name, so I dunno if it really matters, but it's definitely a little weird. Edit: I just realized that the room would probably be way more available than other rooms, because of the name. That might come in handy for a clever meeting scheduler if resource contention is a problem.
    - 13y ago
Timothee 13y ago
Cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.nextventured.com%2F2013%2Fdropbox-office-tour%2F&oq=cache%3Awww.nextventured.com%2F2013%2Fdropbox-office-tour%2F&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.6989j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.n...
enko 13y ago
I was astonished to see a graphic in the youtube buffering article indicating that dropbox handles over 1% of the internet's upload traffic: http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sandvine-graph.png http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sandvi... That is an astonishing amount. Almost 1/3 of Youtube! I knew they were popular but I had no idea it was that much.
- jmduke 13y ago
  Even more astonishing: a service which has been active for six years now is responsible for 1/3 of all of the downloaded data on the Internet.
heywoods 13y ago
These photo's are a tad old aren't they? I was there two weeks ago & most of the office has been renovated to have a more industrial theme & feel. It's also missing photos of their kitchen/dining area which was the most impressive part of their office, for me at least.
hnriot 13y ago
Lovely architectural and design elements, until someone ruined it with the stupid names. The serious design elements are really exquisite, it's a shame, the architecture & design team must cringe to see what Dropbox did with their work.

47 points by tlongren 13y ago

beaker52 13y ago

thesis 13y ago

That's an awful lot of ping pong balls.

bandy 13y ago
Mr. Moose isn't using them anymore.

citricsquid 13y ago

There's a fantastic blog dedicated to company offices called Office Snapshots that may tickle the fancy of those that like the Dropbox office: http://officesnapshots.com/ http://officesnapshots.com/

tlongren 13y ago
Cool. Thanks!
ubercore 13y ago
They even cover this office (without errors!): http://officesnapshots.com/2013/06/05/inside-dropboxs-urbanized-san-francisco-offices/ http://officesnapshots.com/2013/06/05/inside-dropboxs-urbani...
- stevesearer 13y ago
  I run Office Snapshots and it's pretty safe to say that Next Ventured "borrowed" the original post :)
  - shiftpgdn 13y ago
    I'd seriously recommend filing a DMCA against them. Your intellectual property is one of the most important things you own.
  - dredmorbius 13y ago
    Protip: that 'position:fixed' header on your site is one of the web annoyances that prompts me to fire up Stylebot and nuke the element from your site. Stop doing stupid shit like that. Especially on 16:9 laptop displays, anything that eats vertical real estate gets nuked. #header { display: none; } #main { padding-top: 0; }
    - stevesearer 13y ago
      Thanks for the feedback, I had no idea anyone would be bothered by it. It seemed that leaving access to the menu that allows for readers to more quickly and easily browse the site was a positive thing. That style of menu is all over. Is your annoyance particularly on blogs that use them, or on any site?
      - dredmorbius 13y ago
        Anywhere. With Stylish as a plugin on my browser, it's become disgustingly easy for me to attack annoyances. Including FWIW, Hacker News itself: http://stylebot.me/styles/2945 http://stylebot.me/styles/2945 Buzzfeed was particularly fun: https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/G6pzJBLKuir https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/G6pzJBLK... NY Times and Edge Perspectives: https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/NUMQuQUhM2y https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/NUMQuQUh... Basically: if it moves, is fixed, is an interstitial, or is just plain annoying, I kill the hell out of it. And with Stylebot, the easy stuff is just point, click, and "Hide". Then it's gone. Bring it on.

rdl 13y ago

I was disappointed to not see a single actual work area -- just the conference rooms and such. I assume the work areas will be SF startup standard huge open rooms full of lines of back-to-back desks?

lnanek2 13y ago
Well you saw more than me, all i get to see is "Service Temporarily Unavailable". That's a pretty sensitive area for startups, besides. Stars like Joel say offices and quiet are worth the costs many times over, but startups are usually too cash starved and self punishing to actually do it. One startup I was at for a while, Noom, even lied and checked the boxes on the Joel test in job ads for quiet working environment being a huge priority when in actuality everyone was stuffed back to back in open rooms and noisy as heck. The CTO said it was fine to lie as long as interviewees saw the reality once they got there and that fewer people would apply if they told the truth, ha.
- rdl 13y ago
  My ideal office remains something like Pioneer Way in MV where you can get a 20-30k sf dedicated standalone building for $1/mo NNN, and then have 4 parking spots per 1000 feet in a gated lot. If you put 25-75 people in a place like that, you could have a lot of dedicated function areas (various labs, datacenter, kitchen, presentation/theater, etc.), meeting areas, open work areas, and private offices. Throw in subscribing to bauer employee bus services for the minority without cars, and having on-site quality food (or walking 10 minutes to Castro St), and it'd be pretty ideal. Dealing with Mountain View rather than SF government is a big win, too. Downside would be "crappy view".
topherjaynes 13y ago
same thought, cool common areas, but where are the workspaces?
stevesearer 13y ago
I run Office Snapshots, which originally published the Dropbox office. I get this question fairly regularly, and there are a number of reasons that can contribute to the common lack of workspace photos. - The design firm submitting the project didn't work on the workstation portion of the office, and therefore does not take photos of them - Professional photos are generally taken after the company has moved in, and workstation photos are too difficult to do when there may be confidential information present. These photo shoots can take many hours, so disrupting employees for a day is not what companies are interested in. - Workstations are just not as sexy as conference spaces to show off (I disagree, though) All that said, I like to use foursquare or instagram to browse photos taken at offices to get a real look at the spaces. Here's a couple photos of the workstations: - https://foursquare.com/v/dropbox-hq/4f3970aee4b08f009b927739/photos?openPhotoId=504a7976e4b0838e2febc5b8 https://foursquare.com/v/dropbox-hq/4f3970aee4b08f009b927739... - https://foursquare.com/v/dropbox-hq/4f3970aee4b08f009b927739/photos?openPhotoId=4f7b48ffe4b07999dd0b2a1c https://foursquare.com/v/dropbox-hq/4f3970aee4b08f009b927739...

binxbolling 13y ago

Um, isn't it a little weird to have meeting space labeled "Romance Room" and so on? Seems juvenile at worst—"har har look who's in there together now, bro!"—and at best just stupidly awkward and pointless.

endlessvoid94 13y ago
It's only juvenile if the people behave that way -- nobody there does. You're projecting.
- binxbolling 13y ago
  But what's the value or the point? What am I missing? Why would I want to, say, have a serious 1:1 with my boss in a Romance Room? Maybe I'm too old for this level of "whimsy"...?
  - staunch 13y ago
    No, you're right, it's just lame.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- diminoten 13y ago
  Could this argument be applied to a room called, "Coworker Fuck Room"? I mean, it's just a room name, so it's only juvenile if the people behave that way, right? I could see it as the "go-to" room for pitching new ideas (so you can "romance" someone into liking your idea), but the "break up" room makes less sense. Since when do you want to broadcast that you're "breaking up" with a person or idea with a specific room? It's just a room name, so I dunno if it really matters, but it's definitely a little weird. Edit: I just realized that the room would probably be way more available than other rooms, because of the name. That might come in handy for a clever meeting scheduler if resource contention is a problem.
  - 13y ago

Timothee 13y ago

Cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.nextventured.com%2F2013%2Fdropbox-office-tour%2F&oq=cache%3Awww.nextventured.com%2F2013%2Fdropbox-office-tour%2F&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.6989j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.n...

enko 13y ago

I was astonished to see a graphic in the youtube buffering article indicating that dropbox handles over 1% of the internet's upload traffic: http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sandvine-graph.png http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sandvi... That is an astonishing amount. Almost 1/3 of Youtube! I knew they were popular but I had no idea it was that much.

jmduke 13y ago
Even more astonishing: a service which has been active for six years now is responsible for 1/3 of all of the downloaded data on the Internet.

heywoods 13y ago

These photo's are a tad old aren't they? I was there two weeks ago & most of the office has been renovated to have a more industrial theme & feel. It's also missing photos of their kitchen/dining area which was the most impressive part of their office, for me at least.

hnriot 13y ago

Lovely architectural and design elements, until someone ruined it with the stupid names. The serious design elements are really exquisite, it's a shame, the architecture & design team must cringe to see what Dropbox did with their work.