As one of the defining tech companies of the last few decades, Microsoft has been a prominent figure in the accessibility of technology. Since 1981, it has occupied a 515,000-square-foot campus in Mountain View, CA that supported its 2,000 employees. Since then, the company has grown and will continue to do so. To accommodate growth, the campus has been expanded to 643,000-square-foot / 32-acre (13 ha) to support up to 3,000 employees in a state-of-the-art, sustainable facility.
WRT served as the landscape architect for this new campus, the grounds for which now emphasizes ecological restoration adjacent to the Stevens Creek riparian corridor and strong connections between the landscape and interior collaborative spaces and dining facilities. The riparian ecology of the creek is extended through a series of wetland depressions punctuated by Oak Uplands and Savannah. In addition to integrating natural habitat into the campus itself, the design helps restore natural habitat with 30 native species and utilizes stormwater collection, filtration, reuse, and redistribution to help improve the creek.
