What with Apple’s new campus under construction, the coming of Amazon’s new headquarters on the horizon and Facebook moving into downtown San Francisco, Microsoft is getting in on the action.
The tech company is updating their Silicon Valley campus, where about 2,000 employees work, as well as renovating their main headquarters in Redmond, Washington, according to the New York Times.
In Silicon Valley, however, the company is trying to earn some distinction on a crowded terrain by attempting to qualify its updated campus, slated to open in 2019, for net zero non-potable water certification, a designation from the Living Building Challenge – one of the toughest standards programs to achieve globally, according to Architect’s Newspaper.
This means the campus will largely harvest rain water from roofs and solar panels to supply the building and employees’ needs. If the design is successful in achieving their water conservation goals, Microsoft will be the first tech campus to do so.
WRNS Studio Architecture & Planning is designing the new campus; the team replaced the original architects, SOM, in early 2016.
[The Architect’s Newspaper] — E.K. Hudson