Last week, Facebook announced that it is working with a local developer to build a 394-unit housing complex adjacent to its campus in Menlo Park, California.
The rental community, named Anton Menlo, will have more than just apartments. A sports bar, doggy day care, and other services are planned.
“Even in Silicon Valley, where tech companies compete to lure coveted engineers with over-the-top perks and offices that resemble adult playgrounds, Facebook’s plan breaks ground,” Reed Albergotti writes.
Facebook says the project is a response to employees’ concerns over rising housing costs. But comparisons to 20th-century “company towns”--and the extent to which they controlled every aspect of workers’ lives--are inevitable.
The announcement of the Anton Menlo project follows a similar announcement, made last August, of plans to build a "Main Street" through Facebook’s office park.
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