Silicon Valley tech firms creating new ultra-green West Coast aesthetic
Large tech companies including Apple, Facebook, Google, Samsung Electronics and Nvidia have plans for ultra-green sustainable campuses in California's Silicon Valley. Apple wants to install enough solar panels and fuel cells to make its new Norman Foster-designed headquarters entirely energy-independent. Five of the nine buildings on Google’s campus along the shores of San Francisco Bay will have landscaped green roofs, which lower heating and cooling costs.
All the plans "share an eco-consciousness that could become the most distinctive feature of this new West Coast aesthetic," says Bloomberg Businessweek’s Peter Burrows. In America’s tech capital, nondescript office parks are giving way to distinctive—and green—corporate headquarters, he says.
