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Microsoft: We're Razing Our Redmond Campus To Build a Mini City (zdnet.com)
Armand Winter shares a report from ZDNet: Microsoft president Brad Smith said the company will spend $150 million in transport infrastructure, public spaces, sports fields and green space. It expects the project will create 2,500 construction and development jobs. Microsoft's renovation budget is modest compared with the $5 billion Apple spent on its new spaceship headquarters in Cupertino, while Microsoft's Washington neighbor and cloud rival, Amazon, will spend $5 billion on a second North American headquarters, which will offer space for 50,000 people. "We are not only creating a world-class work environment to help retain and attract the best and brightest global talent, but also building a campus that our neighbors can enjoy, and that we can build in a fiscally smart way with low environmental impact," said Smith in a blog post.
... why some of these big companies just don't have their own official town/suburb already -- complete with homes, schools, police, fireman...
... borders, army, government, laws. Let's go full corporatocracy.
Welcome to West Virginia in the 1950s, where the company owned everything in the mining town.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Don't worry, the corporate run city-state arcologies aren't a problem until they employ their own military. That's the point we hit full cyberpunk corprocracy dystopia.
Low environmental impact!? How can they say that without the level of irony in their heads generating a cosmic singularity that swallows the entire earth? Here's a tip to any Microsoft executives or developers reading; most cities in the world are already developed. If you are wondering about how to implement "smart cities", you should be wondering about how to implement it upon already built and lived in cities, not new developments.
And they can pay the teachers, police, and firemen in company script, exchangeable at the company store.
In other news, how are those C-class non-voting stock options treating you?
Look, this whole place is just filled with construction cranes, although Dubai has us beat on that score.
But are these passivhaus green buildings? Do they have solar roofs (yes, I know, you incorrectly think Seattle and Redmond are bad places for solar, but we get 80 to 100 percent solar output all year round, even when it's cloudy as the dickens and mist rains are falling)? Will they have lofted wind turbines like you see in Big Hero 6? On the Eastside, they aren't as green as Seattle City Light is, so that's a major concern.
Also, how many bike rental spots? And electric skateboards?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Because after this song and some violent strikes, we stopped doing that shit. Hell, the United Nations eventually declared such systems to be slavery.
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Caint no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one dont a-get you, then the left one will
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
Never been to Redmond eh?
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
The point is to *attract* qualified developers, not make them run away screaming.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
You're born, live, work, and die within The Company. It is your entire life, cradle to grave. The Company is your family. The Company is your social group. It's where you work, sleep, eat, play, go to school, have your children. The Company provides everything you'll ever need, and The Company keeps you and your family safe. Why would you ever want to leave?
*SHUDDER*
Scary.
I owe my soul to the Microsoft store...
First law of people: People are generally stupid.
So pretty much like working on any tunnel project or rural mine. It's not that bad actually.
As long as you can leave when you want to. A lot of the company towns where setup so that yes it wasn't bad, you could have a nice life there, as long as you worked there. They made it so you couldn't quite make enough to live there AND save up to get out of there.
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
You can just look at their current campus. They already have a baseball diamond and two soccer fields.
They essentially own everything between 148th ave, 51st, and Bel-Red Rd. Interestingly, Pactera Technologies, Honeywell, and Nintendo are all allowed in their turf. Ha, and "Posh Consulting" is right next door.
Both lesser known business incubators and cities have done just as much for communities at smaller scales in many parts of the nation.
Let your rank and file telecommute 80-90% and house them (and maybe even their families) at the resort the other 10-20% for a "working vacation" when face-to-face needs arise.
Why would anyone want to work at a "close-to-home campus" set up like the damn Ritz and then commute an hour or two daily back to a 3-bed box in the burbs?
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
Have you ever read the dystopian novel, 1984? Or, A Brave New World? Or, Animal Farm? Or, tons of other writings about corporate control?
Maybe their projections point towards downsizing and reduced revenues. So they are redeveloping the property with the intention of being able to sell it back to the community at a high value.
They are pitching it as something modern, to appeal to their stockholders, or at least not spook them and undermine the company's future.
I think it is incredibly smart for a long term thinking company who plans to relocate or downsize.
The housing's proximity to Microsoft's headquarters will make it extremely valuable. There is also the historical aspect, even if Microsoft relocates. And if Microsoft relocates then it is an incredible PR boost. Who wouldn't want such an incredible business that raises property values, and cleans up before they leave? As opposed to leaving an abandoned building behind like a deserted ghost town.
Like Disney World
so...mr gates...bellmont...west of phoenix, az...when's it gonna happen...fyi...welcome to the desert.
Have you ever been to Redmond campus? It's huge, and I'd wager than 70% of all housing within 1 mile of Microsoft is Microsoft staff...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
We are not only creating a world-class work environment to help retain and attract the best and brightest global talent, but also building a campus that our neighbors can enjoy, and that we can build in a fiscally smart way with low environmental impact,
In other words, it is paid by fiscal optimization? Obviously, a new campus for Microsoft was in the general interest, and all citizen had to help the effort.
Nice place you got there. Be a shame if something were to, ah..happen to it. They build a city, we build a 30 foot wall all the way around it. Problem?
The numbers don't match the rhetoric. TFA says the budget is $150M. That is barely enough to build one small office building.
Until actual housing is mixed in, and the first floor of the each of the buildings is rented out as a public facing rental space (IE retail, restaurants, etc), the campus is still a private campus that the public cannot access and has no interest in going into.
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
We used to listen to this song on WXRT in the late '70's. Ill go back further than Johnny Cash with this same song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?.... You can compare them..
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Plenty have their own congressperson or senator.
Cheap storage VM.
I've been to Microsoft's campus a couple of times, and it literally is like a college campus. There's huge buildings with a large amount of open green space. Back before Agile and DevOps, developers would have their own private offices. If I had to guess, this is their excuse to build more "team collaboration spaces". They could just knock down the existing buildings and consolidate everyone down into high rises since all they need is huge open spaces now.
I don't know about everyone else, but I can't concentrate on a problem if I'm crammed in with 20 people in an open space. The big problem with this is that it's going to take the management consultants who control HR at every company 20 or more years of studies to conclude this is a bad idea and start recommending putting knowledge workers back in offices.
Okay and your purpose in pointing that out is what, exactly? Or are you just flapping your gums for no reason?
Take me down to the Microsoft city
Where the UI's flat and security's shitty
Oh won't you please take me home
Take me down to the Microsoft city
Where upgrades are forced and there's no privacy
Oh won't you please take me home
I wanna go, I wanna go
Oh won't you please take me home
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
So pretty much like working on any tunnel project or rural mine. It's not that bad actually.
Which explains why so many people are lining up to move into mining towns...
Is that quote from a movie or book? Sounds interesting.
Maybe they are afraid- maybe they are disgusted.
But they are going to other countries in increasing numbers.
Tommorrow's best companies and best resources may stay away from the u.s. until it returns to more international friendly values.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Who do you want in the "Google" slot, Sergey Brin, or "Bob"? Bob's bright but he doesn't found google so google is founded in Canada or China instead.
Besides, they are not blocking Bright americans from the slots anyway. They just flat out are not showing up as expected.
And that means fewer jobs in the u.s. And more powerful competing countries (which is bad for the u.s.).
You are talking about driving away some of the most brilliant 10,000 people in the world who would have come here and benefited the u.s. to other countries.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.