Microsoft Campus Tours - Building 4 Refurb

Posted: Aug 19, 2011 at 8:48 AM

By: Nic Fillingham

(7)

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6 Comments

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Building 4, one of the original buildings on the Redmond campus, has just undergone a massive refurbishment, transforming it from the traditional one-office-per-employee layout to a modern, open space with an emphasis on collaboration and natural light.

John Snavely from the Office RED team gives us a tour of the new and improved work spaces in building 4 including the bike rack, work shop, Garage and "Soda-TRON 2000".

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spivonious

Aug 19, 2011 at 11:39 AM

I saw one of those Coke machines at Universal Studios Orlando. If only it served Pepsi.
Adam Jacobs

Aug 20, 2011 at 12:27 PM

Pepsi?!? Yuch...
LukePuplett

Aug 21, 2011 at 3:59 AM

Wonderful. And note the slant on the physical technology world going on.
Would like to see how Redmond compares with regional offices.
madscientist

Aug 24, 2011 at 9:54 AM

How much was the refurb to provide a "open collaborative" environment and how much of it was to cram a few more devs in? I'm very skeptical of the benefits of an open workspace. In my experience it means a lot of distraction. Every time anyone in your group has a visitor everyone else has to deal with the chatter. Not very pleasant.
nic Easily Distracted

Aug 25, 2011 at 1:46 PM

@madscientist: Don't quote me on this as I'll need John Snavely to confirm but I believe there was no increase in the number of people (workers) allocated to the building as part of the refurb. Their goal was simply to use the space more efficiently. You'll notice in the video that there are both open areas for collaboration as well as private offices and individual workspaces.
@LukePuplett: Great idea; perhaps we can get some Campus Tours from campuses around the globe. I know the Sydney, Australia office was just refurbished and it looks great!
Duncanma "yeah that's awful close, but that's not why I'm so hard done by"

Aug 26, 2011 at 10:51 AM

@nic: what if you don't like people? Is there a building designed for those of us who would rather be left completely alone?