TECHNOLOGY TOUCHSTONES
Silicon Valley pilgrimage
Silicon Valley startups have a history of humble beginnings, dating to 1939 when Hewlett-Packard Co. was founded in a Palo Alto, Calif., garage. It still stands at 367 Addison Ave., considered by many to be the birthplace of Silicon Valley. HP now owns the place.
Steve Jobs was one of many entrepreneurs influenced by the HP legacy as a teenager, eventually inspiring him and his engineering friend, Steve “The Woz” Wozniak, to begin working on Apple’s first computer in the home of Jobs’ parents. That ranch-style house at 2066 Crist Dr. in Los Altos, Calif., is now owned by Jobs’ sister, Patricia.
After they started Google in 1998, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin built what would become the world’s dominant search engine in a garage and room they rented from Susan Wojcicki, whom they later hired (she now runs YouTube for them). The Menlo Park, Calif., house, at 232 Santa Margarita Ave., is now owned by Google.
Shortly after starting Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and a few friends moved to Silicon Valley for what they thought would be just one summer. Zuckerberg never returned to Harvard, and the world hasn’t been quite the same since then.
The Palo Alto, Calif., house where Zuckerberg did a lot of computer coding and threw some wild parties, if you believe the movies, is located at 819 La Jennifer Way. The place is still rented out by young entrepreneurs hoping some of Zuckerberg’s magic will rub off on them.
TODAY’S TECHNOLOGY TEMPLES
The headquarters of Apple, Google and Facebook have turned into must-see shrines for the products that have become part of culture’s lifeblood.
None of the companies offers public tours, but that doesn’t mean you can’t steal glimpses at these factories of innovation.
SEARCH STARTS HERE
Google is the most accessible of the three headquarters. The hub of its Mountain View, Calif., campus is at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, with other Google offices sprawling almost all the way down to the nearby NASA Ames Research Center, where Page and Brin keep personal jets in a hangar.
Walk down Charleston Road and you are bound to see one of the company’s employees (also known as “Googlers”) cruising on the yellow, green, blue and red bikes placed outside all the offices to get to meetings more quickly.
While strolling around, make sure to swing into the office at 1981 Landings Drive, where you can take a selfie with Android statues memorializing different versions of the operating system that powers most of the world’s smartphones.
Each statue represents a dessert because Google has nicknamed each version after something sweet. The menu includes Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop and Marshmallow. The latest serving of Android, called Nougat, has just started rolling out. Finally, in the Google store on the main campus, you can buy company-branded merchandise, including shirts, hats, mugs, pens and even notebooks (the kind with paper).
A PLACE EVERYONE LIKES
The giant thumbs-up sign replicating Facebook’s symbol for liking a post has become one of the most photographed spots in Silicon Valley since the social networking company moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to 1 Hacker Way in nearby Menlo Park five years ago.