FastForward visits Facebook's Menlo Park Campus

ON LOCATION - October 2014

By Aidan Ament, Brianna Bernal, Margot Bickler, Joe Blair, Gemma Calandra, Bennet Carbone, Luca Evans, Madeleine Hawkes, Scott Hogan, Lauren Hopper, Nick Kostanecki, Ian Leonhardt, Rachel Richman, Eddie Rohosy, Jack Rousseau, Elena Sandell, Avery Van Ingen, Christine Watridge, Adley Weschler, Arthur Weschler, Aisha Whitney and Ellie Wynne; From The Bay School, Brandeis-Hillel Day, Branson, Convent of the Sacred Heart, GATE Academy, Katherine Delmar Burke, Marin Academy, Marin Catholic, Marin School of the Arts, Redwood High, San Domenico, Sir Francis Drake High, St. Ignatius College Preparatory, Tamalpais High and Urban School

What comes to mind when you think of an office building: bland cubicles, with employees hunched over their computers, mindlessly working in stale air? Come experience the magic of the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, California. It was like being transported to a completely different world, where workspaces become playgrounds for the imagination. Picture influences of The Grove in Los Angeles, an amusement park, with a twist of the tech industry, and you have the Facebook offices. The campus was created to look like a miniature town and was designed and built by architects who helped create Disneyland.

As we toured the campus, we noticed that attention to detail was a consistent ideal. From the ceilings to the floors, everything had a unique Facebook feel. Our guides pointed out the motivational posters covering the walls of the offices, showing us no matter which way we turned our heads, new inspiration would be visible. Thought-provoking, creative messages, with interesting and fun graphics were featured on nearly every empty space.