With friends who work at Netflix, Lockheed Martin, Google, and Nvidia, I had an idea to do a photo tour of tech headquarters in the Silicon Valley.
Unfortunately, the majority of them are in sprawly office parks which are difficult to photograph and not terribly interesting.
So, instead, I decided to incorporate that idea in a broader tour of the cities of Santa Clara County, at over 1.7 million people, the Bay Area's most populous.
These are primarily the downtown regions of these cities which range from manufactured (Cupertino) to vibrant (Palo Alto) to unexpected (Campbell),
and will be interjected with some of our well known tech company headquarters or campuses. I will have a separate San Jose thread. I hope you enjoy.
How about let's start with a major tech failure: Kato Drive, Fremont, Alameda County.
Oops...
Western Digital, Osgood Rd, Fremont
Milpitas - pop 66,790
This overpass does an effective job of cutting off "downtown" Milpitas from anything else
I'm not sure if this medical campus brings people during the week
This library was all that was bringing any life to downtown during the weekend
Driving down Main Street towards the Great Mall
Great Mall VTA Light Rail Station
SanDisk
One of the Cisco Systems buildings which, technically headquartered in San Jose, sprawls through eastern San Jose and western Milpitas
Let's head across the Valley and up the Peninsula to Facebook's new headquarters in Menlo Park
Facebook recently took over the old Sun Microsystems office park and...where is the thumbs down?
Menlo Park, San Mateo County - pop 32,026
Caltrain tracks
One of my favorites...the original Rountable Pizza
Palo Alto - pop 64,403
Though the manufacturing plant is in Fremont, Tesla Motors' corporate headquarters is on Deer Creek Rd, Palo Alto
HP Headquarters
Palo Alto's most famous entity and largest employer - Stanford University
Let's head up for a view
Looking south towards Mountain View and San Jose
Looking north towards the church
Downtown Palo Alto in the distance
Los Altos - pop 28,976 - where the Steve Jobs movie with Ashton Kutcher is now filming
Mountain View - pop 74,066
Castro Street downtown
A friend of mine works as a Planner for the City of Mountain View and this, along with several other old homes, are being knocked down for new development
Downtown Mountain View's train station is multi-modal with both VTA Light Rail and Caltrain
One of my good friends works for Google and you can't even imagine the amount of free perks they get including free gourmet cafes and restaurant across its sprawling campus,
volleyball courts, gyms, rock climbing wall, massage, yoga, hair salon, nap room, an interactive Google Earth room, free shuttles as far as San Francisco and Danville...
...and free bicyles to ride round campus
Evernote, West Evelyn Ave, Mountain View
Intuit, Marine/Coast, Mountain View
LinkedIn, Stierlin Ct, Mountain View
Symantec, Mountain View
Moffett Airfield, Mountain View
Juniper Networks, Enterprise Way, Sunnyvale
New construction on Innovation Way
Lockheed Martin, Enterprise Way Entrance, Sunnyvale
Lockheed Martin VTA Station, N Mathilda Avenue, Sunnyvale
Yahoo, N Mathilda Ave, Sunnyvale
AMD, AMD Place, Sunnyvale
NetApp, E Java Place, Sunnyvale
Entering Santa Clara
McAfee, Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara
My apartment complex management is headquartered here...perhaps I can speak to someone up my annual rent increase!
Intel, Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara
NVidia, Walsh Avenue, Santa Clara
Arista Networks/Dell, Great America Parkway, Santa Clara
San Tomas Creek
New Polycom offices
Marvell Technology, Marvell Lane, Santa Clara
Santa Clara, CA - pop 116,468
City Hall complex
Near the old downtown
If only any of this was still here...now it is a courthouse, parking lot and a suburban apartment complex
Santa Clara does have a nice stock of old homes
Residence Hall at Santa Clara University
Mission Santa Clara on the SCU campus
Sunnyvale - pop 140,095
Downtown Sunnyvale is under remodel with new mixed use development, shopping center, and the historic old town near the Sunnyvale Caltrain station
More on the historic Murphy Avenue later...
Saratoga - pop 29,926
Cupertino - pop 58,302
The cousin of an ex of mine used to rent a two bedroom apartment in this community and paid $4500 a month. This was in 2001.
Apple
Wildlife rescue was on the way according to a women in the parking lot who told me she had broken her foot and security had spent several days trying to ensure she was not disturbed.
Netflix, Winchester Circle, Los Gatos
Image Shack, N Santa Cruz Avenue, Los Gatos
Los Gatos - pop 29,413
Gilroy - pop 48,821
An agricultural town in the southernmost part of Santa Clara County, I wouldn't say Gilroy is technically in the Silicon Valley, but, its proximity has certainly transformed the community.
I took these pictures on the way back from LA about a year and a half ago and I thought I would include them.
Campbell - pop 39,349
VTA Light Rail tracks
Back to Sunnyvale...
The End
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Tour of California 1: Los Angeles,
2: Hollywood, Glendale, Pasadena, Beverly Hills,
3: Riverside, Santa Ana, Long Beach,
4: San Jose,
5: San Diego,
6: Fresno,
7: Stockton, Modesto,
8: Gold Country,
9: Eureka, Arcata,
10: Monterey, Carmel,
11: Santa Cruz,
12: Sacramento Pt One, 13: Sacramento Pt Two,
14: Roseville & Folsom,
15: Concord & Walnut Creek,
16: Tri-Valley,
17: Berkeley, Emeryville,
18: Fremont,
19: Santa Clara, Mountain View, Palo Alto,
20: Redwood City, Foster City, San Mateo,
21: Oakland,
22: Benicia, Vallejo,
23: Napa, St. Helena,
24: Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Sonoma,
25: San Rafael,
26: Larkspur, Mill Valley,
27: Sausalito, Tiburon,
28: Hollister, San Juan Bautista,
29: Long Beach 2008,
30: Venice,
31: Santa Monica,
32: Sacramento Pt 3,
33: Solvang,
34: Alameda,
35: Knights Ferry,
36: California Zephyr,
37: Colfax,
38: Davis,
39: Oakdale,
40: San Francisco Pt 1,
San Francisco Pt 2,
41: Chico, Redding,
42: Kings Beach,
43: Merced,
44: Gold Country pt 2,
45: Gold Country pt 3,
46: Sonora,
47: Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun City,
48: Orange, Fullerton,
49: Anaheim, Irvine,
50: Newport Beach, Laguna Beach,
51: San Francisco, Pt 3,
52: Lodi,
53: Martinez,
54: Ft Bragg, Mendocino,
55: San Luis Obispo,
56: Sacramento River Pt 1,
57: Sacramento River Pt 2,
58: Lake Merritt/Oakland,
59: Marysville/Yuba City,
60: Woodland,
61: Beverly Hills"
62: Los Angeles,
63: Sacramento,
64: Lakeport,
65: South Lake Tahoe,
66: Salinas, Watsonville,
67: Pacific Grove.
68: Winters/Willows,
69: Red Bluff,
70: Redding,
71: Weaverville,
72: Yreka/Weed/Mt Shasta,
73: Mt. Lassen/Susanville,
74: Quincy,
75: Oroville,
76: Avalon,
77: Mariposa/Yosemite,
78:Markleeville,
79: East Bay (Contra Costa Co),
80: East Bay (Alameda Co),
81: Oakland Revisited