OMA and Rem Koolhaas Design Facebook's Willow Campus in Menlo Park

OMA New York, led by Rem Koolhaas, has designed Facebook's Willow Campus in Menlo Park, California. The project was announced by John Tenanes, VP of Global Facilities and Real Estate, in a company blog post. The campus will be adjacent to Facebook's existing headquarters by Frank Gehry and is conceived as an integrated, multifunctional neighborhood. It includes 160,000 square meters of office space, a visitor center, 12,000 square meters of retail (supermarket, pharmacy, shops), restaurants, a hotel, and 1,500 residential units. Only 15% of the housing will be affordable, a point of controversy given the area's rising real estate costs driven by tech companies. The development will be open to the local community and built in biennial phases, with the first phase—a mix of retail, housing, and offices—expected by early 2021. The article also references Apple Park in Cupertino, designed by Foster + Partners, which cost $5 billion and opened in April 2017, housing 12,000 employees on 708,000 square meters with a 1,000-seat theater named after Steve Jobs.