@MicrosoftHQ

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Microsoft HQ campus while attending the VS Live! conference. The conference was a great experience, with a smallish footprint and attendance and even offering some direct access to higher level Microsoft employees.

The conference was held in Building 33 on East Campus. I've never been on the campus and wanted to pass on some observations from my 3 days there. First off, I didn't read anything about the history of the campus, and I didn't go into the Visitor Center. I was a long time Intel guy, and I don't have any real personal experience with Microsoft employees, campus or culture. So, I am going to simply describe the feel of the campus and some of what I saw as an outsider walking through.

To get from the conference area to lunch there were shuttle buses provided, but I always prefer to walk. Instead of asking someone for directions, I tried three map sites, hoping one would direct me across the pedestrian bridge over the freeway I saw on my Lyft in from the hotel. Only one routed me to the walking bridge on the first try and it wasn't Microsoft or Apple. But getting to and back from the Commons was easy and I only used the directions on the first time. Walking directions

I've spent a year of my life on Intel campuses. I've also spent time on HP Campuses and even recently toured HP Corvallis. The Intel I remember and the HP campus I saw are quite similar and also quite different to what I saw at Microsoft.

Compared to a standard Intel campus, Microsoft HQ is composed of many much smaller buildings. Copilot tells me there are about 83 and I saw two more nearing completion. The average building size at HQ seems smaller than Intel Jones Farm where many buildings near 100,000 square feet per floor. At Microsoft, the many smallish buildings more loosely arranged really changes the feel of the campus.

Here is a map of the Intel Jones Farm Campus in Hillsboro Oregon. Note the huge parking lots surrounding 5 or 6 large buildings arranged linearly. A walk around campus for a quick 1:1 meeting is fairly visually boring affair.

Here is a map of the Microsoft HQ campus. The larger size, curved streets, roundabouts, and small budlings make it hard to even exactly tell where the campus begins and ends. At walk through or around campus is much more visually appealing as well as offering various trail and route options. The design intention is very different than a grid.

Something I also loved is the underground parking. I saw a few elevators down in key locations and no cars in core areas. Moving the cars underground allows them to bring buildings closer together and further increase walkability.

Here is an example of small buildings, closely nested.

The commons area of the West Campus may be the cultural center of the campus. There are restaurant style eating options and happy hour venues. Here one need not leave campus to have an afterwork drink or meet up and catch up. There is an onsite First Tech Credit Union, a bike shop, barber and may more retail and service options. A mad dash off campus to get a table at the local pub to chat with coworkers doesn't seem to be necessary here.

Summer is intern season, with the youth sporting UW, Stanford and various university branding along with their intern badges and occasionally stylish clothing. After three days and three cross campus walks, I was starting to feel at home, and it must have showed. Seated in the Mixer just after lunch I had a fresh-faced intern ask me for directions to his group meet-up.