Facebook City: Zuckerberg plans waterfront town in SF
Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is getting into the city planning business by creating a 200 acre community for over 10,000 Facebook employees. The small town – currently nicknamed “Zee” for Zuckerberg – would be a waterfront housing development and community near San Francisco for the social network’s ever growing workforce.
Plans for the development were drawn up by architect Frank Gehry, who also designed the Guggenheim Museum in Spain and the 8 Spruce Street tower in New York City. Gehry’s designs are noted for their interesting use of eye-catching curved shapes. Gehry was told to emphasize the natural landscape of the new Facebook community, and the designs employ many green features, including trees planted on rooftops and multiple outdoor parks. The community will include several types of living spaces including dormitories, villas, hotels, and more.
“Zee-town” is likely a response to Silicon Valley’s controversial effects on the San Francisco housing situation. The massive influx of high paying technology jobs has significantly driven up the cost of living in and around San Francisco, effectively pricing out many of the people who had previously lived and worked in the city.
The tension surrounding the use of city infrastructure by corporations came to a head during the Google bus protests in 2013, when large groups of people blocked bus routes for the private shuttle service Google Inc offers to its San Francisco area employees.
Facebook, USA
Towns created and run by business are nothing new. There were many so-called “company towns” formed in the late 1800s, usually created by businesses to support an industry specific to a location such as coal mining, textile manufacturing, and so on. At one point in America’s history, there were over 2,500 company towns housing around 3 percent of the country’s total population.
Some of these towns still exist. Hershey, Pennsylvania, for example, is named after the chocolate company rather than the other way around. Candy magnate Milton Hershey himself even served as the town’s first mayor.
Zuckerberg has made no mention of who will be running his small city, or even if he plans on living there himself.
photo credit: Ksayer1 via photopin cc
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