Gallery: Silicon Swagger: Tech Titans Embrace Big Architecture in Staggering New HQs

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    Courtesy of Apple
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    Apple's planned new campus in Cupertino, California, now scheduled to open in 2016.
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    Courtesy of Apple
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    Floorplan of Apple's proposed circular building, designed to house 12,000 employees.
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    Courtesy of Facebook
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    __FACEBOOK | The Design:__ A single quarter-mile-long room with a billowy grass-topped roof and swaths of movable desks that can be easily rearranged by engineers. __What It Says:__ Fancy design, constantly reconfigured contents, denizens unclear on exactly where they are … Yeah, that’s all sounding kind of familiar, Facebook.
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    Courtesy of Facebook
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    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (center, standing) meets with architect Frank Gehry (center, seated).
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    Courtesy of Google
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    __GOOGLE |The Design:__ Nine angled buildings connected by bridges. __What It Says:__ The search giant collected info on staff behaviors, which was translated into a sort of architectural algorithm that supposedly will encourage “casual collisions” among workers. Sounds great, but at least one of those collisions ended with the death of Google Reader.