Frank Gehry’s latest office building at Facebook’s Menlo Park HQ opens

A new office building at Facebook's headquarters at Menlo Park by Frank Gehry has opened. Named MK21, the office building was designed and built in less than 18 months and has a focus on sustainability.
The building is an extension to MK20, a previous building that completed in 2015. ‘All the things we learned doing building 20 prepared us for building 21,’ says Gehry in a video released by Facebook on the project. ‘We were getting lessons in Facebook culture and we’re making a new kind of architecture within that culture.’
Among the improvements and enhancements to the extended design, rooflines were updated to bring in more natural light, the roof garden was brought down into the office space and the circulation was concentrated to the heart of the building into a central channel.
Aiming to have a minimal impact on its environment and bring back nature to its formerly industrial context, MK21 includes a reclaimed water system – designed to save approximately 17 million gallons annually. Solar power supports activities at MPK 21, where there is a 1.4-megawatt photo-voltaic solar panel system on the roof and on the carports.
Nature and wildlife are embraced by the design that features fritted windows to protect birds as well as a 3.6 acre rooftop garden featuring over 200 trees and a half-mile meandering pathway, helping employees to unwind and relax.
The outdoor social terrace for employees named ‘The Bowl’ at Facebook’s Menlo Park HQ
Other outdoor social spaces filled with green plants and scenic landscape design include the ‘Town Square’, a sheltered green space with soaring 12m-high redwood trees, while ‘The Bowl’ is a courtyard designed like an amphitheatre to connect MPK 21 with the earlier deisgned MPK20, also designed by Gehry.
The office interior was designed with teamwork and collaboration as a priority. The offices are open plan, yet also include designated areas for quiet, independent work. A single pathway runs the length of the building like a stem connecting each part of the office. Following the path will unfold five dining rooms, 15 art installations and a vast event and meeting space.
Facebook continues to add to the Menlo Park hub and plan the completion of a two-acre park with public plaza and event space for 2019. This will also include a bike and pedestrian bridge over the Bayfront Expressway for the whole community.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Gehry Partners website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Rosewood Miyakojima: ‘Japan, but not as most people know it’
Rosewood Miyakojima offers a smooth balance of intuitive Japanese ‘omotenashi’ fused with Rosewood’s luxury edge
-
Thrilling, demanding, grotesque and theatrical: what to see at Berlin Gallery Weekend
Berlin Gallery Weekend is back for 2025, and with over 50 galleries taking part, there's lots to see
-
A first look inside the new Oxford Street Ikea. Spoiler: blue bags and meatballs are included
The new Oxford Street Ikea opens tomorrow (1 May), giving Londoners access to the Swedish furniture brand right in the heart of the city
-
Los Angeles businesses regroup after the 2025 fires
In the third instalment of our Rebuilding LA series, we zoom in on Los Angeles businesses and the architecture and social fabric around them within the impacted Los Angeles neighbourhoods
-
‘Fall Guy’ director David Leitch takes us inside his breathtaking Los Angeles home
For movie power couple David Leitch and Kelly McCormick, interior designer Vanessa Alexander crafts a home with the ultimate Hollywood ending
-
The Lighthouse draws on Bauhaus principles to create a new-era workspace campus
The Lighthouse, a Los Angeles office space by Warkentin Associates, brings together Bauhaus, brutalism and contemporary workspace design trends
-
This minimalist Wyoming retreat is the perfect place to unplug
This woodland home that espouses the virtues of simplicity, containing barely any furniture and having used only three materials in its construction
-
We explore Franklin Israel’s lesser-known, progressive, deconstructivist architecture
Franklin Israel, a progressive Californian architect whose life was cut short in 1996 at the age of 50, is celebrated in a new book that examines his work and legacy
-
A new hilltop California home is rooted in the landscape and celebrates views of nature
WOJR's California home House of Horns is a meticulously planned modern villa that seeps into its surrounding landscape through a series of sculptural courtyards
-
The Frick Collection's expansion by Selldorf Architects is both surgical and delicate
The New York cultural institution gets a $220 million glow-up
-
Remembering architect David M Childs (1941-2025) and his New York skyline legacy
David M Childs, a former chairman of architectural powerhouse SOM, has passed away. We celebrate his professional achievements