The wiley Mark Zuckerberg has hired the wry Frank Gehry to design a new, massive workplace for Facebook employees, and some folks think this is just playing it safe. It is true that Mr. Gehry is several decades past being l'enfant terrible, but all that experience may well be a good balance for the impulsive tendencies of newly-minted silicon valley billionaires. Allison Arieff is doubtful that Gehry can deliver something meaningful for Facebook - but I am more hopeful.
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| Frank O and Mark Z play with blocks |
Gehry has a public reputation for remarkable but expensive buildings that leak. That opinion is not well supported by fact, however. Among clients, he has a reputation for developing great building programs - the functional space layouts that make his buildings pleasant and efficient places to work. Developing a single, cohesive workplace for 2800 employees will not be easy. The idea of 2800 people of
any profession all under the same roof is frightening; the more so when they are all young, flailing engineers trying to figure out what in the Hell they are producing . But if anyone is up to the task, it's Frank O. Gehry Partners.
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| The Architecture that architects love to hate. |
You can read more about this - including an unsubstantiated jab at open offices - at
Allison Arieff's design blog.
