2nd August
Leaving naturally beautiful Yosemite behind my partner and I drove west, down the far side of the mountain range and towards the Western Coast of the USA. We headed straight for San Francisco, driving around the southern edge of the bay area. Driving this way to the city was intentional as I wanted to visit Silicon Valley.
This was a part of the trip we hadn't planned much. I knew Apple Park and Google headquarters both had stores, but beyond that we planned nothing.
Being still in America, parking was abundant and easily found. Car parks for employees only were everywhere yet still we could easily find on street spaces.
Below is a photo of the Google headquarters. The roof looked like a tent from a distance, drooping between the supports like cloth. Notice the bikes that were propped up outside the campus; painted the Google primary colours and free to use! I wonder how many get stolen each year.
We wandered up to a main entrance. A member of staff stood by the door asked us if we worked there. After we said no, we were informed about the 2 entrances we were allowed in - the cafe and the gift shop. I assume the Google headquarters get a lot of visitors, hence the need for a guy here. Definitely not the bouncer type, more of a junior intern doing his turn on "door duty".
Inside the cafe door was, well, a really nice cafe. We of course ordered coffee and as general members of the public they were happy to serve us. Of course most ordering from the cafe were employees, flashing employee badges for perhaps discounts or loyalty points. Multiple members of staff were working behind the counter to prepare coffees; there were almost as many people serving drinks as there were ordering them. Needless to see the service was fast and very polite.
A big living room area with sofa, wall decoration and shelving covered in all sorts was situated past the cafe. In the corner on one shelf was this notice of filming, essentially stating that Google is allowed to film us and we can't sue them for said footage being taken. Although this was probably legally sound, the morality to make the sign an a5 sheet of paper inside the room itself is poor.
Working in the tech industry I can say a whiteboard covered in post-it notes is a very common site. This one had words of inspiration from visitors to the Google offices (I guess specifically the cafe). Lots of positive vibes on this board, although I specifically liked how someone used 2 notes to emphasise chilling out.
Next door we found the merch store. I was originally quite excited about this part, hoping to purchase a nice mug or bag to show off visiting the headquarters of Google. What we found was sadly an array of mediocre products at a high price. The quality of the glazed mugs and steel bottles did not blow me away and after having a certain intention to buy something with a logo on it I ended up not buying anything.
This room also contained a display of all the hardware products Google sold such as the pixel buds, phone and watch. At the back of this section there was a helpdesk, perfect to find as my girlfriend's Pixel 7 had a cracked camera lens which needed repairing. In classic digital products nature they were unable to repair the phone against it's warranty due to it being a model sold in the UK.
Outside the store we found one of the many art pieces Google have commissioned to surround the offices. The one depicted below is called Halo by SoftLab and is a transparent mosaic style structure which you can walk inside of. It's distortion of the light cast fun shadows and reflections in the space.
Wandering around the campus further (it really is easy to wander around here) we found this art installation. There was no information about it but I did enjoy how the different colours blending together based on which way you looked at it. Behind on the right you can see the Android "Green Bugdroid" mascot which has been intentionally decorated with graffiti. I imagine a lot of Google employee ID photos are taken by this statue.
The final art installation we saw was this man leaning out of a window. I've struggled to find out much about this piece of art but I do like it. He's like a guard for the car park, scaring off Tesla thieves.
Unlike Googles headquarters Apple Park is not accessible by the general public. Instead a parking area by a fancier than usual Apple Store sits next to it as a sort-of visitors center. Opposite this site is a wall of foliage blocking the offices, as well as the exhaust like tunnel entrances to the underground car park for employees only. We pulled in an had a look around.
Next to the visitors car park is another art installation, this one a sort of mirror maze. Named Mirage and created by Katie Paterson, it is a collection of glass pillars glazed from different sands from deserts around the world. This gives the variance in colour and opacity. Weaved around the olive trees its a very pretty space.
In classic Apple fashion the store is boastful in it's design. Reflecting the glass walled structure of Apple Park this store displays almost no structure support from the outside, wrapping the inside space in a glass perimenter The large overhang from the roof attempts to provide shade, but as seen in the image below only really works near midday on all sides.
the building has 4 sections - a rooftop balcony, a cafe, a shop and this model room. The model iself is very simple and pretty much featureless, a smoothed depiction of the Apple Park area. iPads around the edge run a augmented reality program to project the details of the park onto the model with moving cars and even a day/night cycle. You could even take the roofs off the buildings and peer inside. Like all of these kinds of gimmicks it was a very fun five minutes of playing.
In the center of the building is an exact copy of what you'd find in your nearest city center Apple store. Tables with products on display and members of staff wandering around looking for customers to talk to or generally something to do. As the Macs were open to the internet I couldn't help but leave the blog open on one of them - you can see the homepage in the image below. Although I'm sure a staff member reset the device after I left, I hope at least 1 person saw this on the screen and wandered what it was.
Of course the cafe sold coffee using an iPad. We ordered regular and oatmilk cappucchinos. I can confirm they were better than Google's.
I do like how even the cover up for this broken wall segment followed the Apple house style. This isn't a broken piece of glass waiting for repair, no, it's an "appearance" we are asked to "pardon" while it is being"improved".
Lets get this show back on the road; Click the link to head North with us to the city of San Francisco. Otherwise return home