Images: Microsoft plans Xbox campus ... with a bar?

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Images: Microsoft plans Xbox campus ... with a bar?

Microsoft plans to create a big new campus in Redmond for its Entertainment and Devices Division, including its Xbox business, and if one aspect of the building design accurately reflects the company's intentions, it will include a rather unusual employee amenity: a bar.

Click for larger views of West Campus plans filed with the city.

See this story from Thursday's paper for more on the 42-acre West Campus development plan, which will establish a new center of operations for the video-game unit and other parts of the division. Microsoft is expected to publicly detail the campus plan in the coming days. The planned four-building, 1.1 million-square-foot office complex is west of state Route 520, just north of the former Eddie Bauer headquarters -- which the plans show being renovated into a training and meeting center, with its own health-care clinic for employees. (Microsoft acquired the Eddie Bauer building a few years back.)

Callison Architecture rendering

While looking through the building permits for the West Campus project at Redmond City Hall this week, I came across the schematic shown at the top of this post, laying out the design of one of the commons buildings at the center of the complex. It details a bar with capacity for 76 occupants, next to a room with two pool tables.

City planners have been given the impression that it would, in fact, serve alcoholic beverages. However, Microsoft isn't yet discussing the West Campus development publicly, and these kinds of plans are often subject to change, so I wasn't able to confirm definitively that this is what Microsoft will actually put there.

If the company does go forward with the plan, the assumption is that it would bring in an outside firm to operate the bar, as already happens with local restaurateurs in the campus cafeterias. But as noted in the story, questions include how Microsoft would handle the issues of legal liability that could come from offering an on-campus drinking spot.

Some people in the Seattle-area real estate community were surprised and said they hadn't heard of a company offering employees a bar before. Kip Spencer of NuMark Office Interiors started joking about potential names for the drinks. Among his suggestions: "XP on the Beach."

Posted by at November 8, 2007 5:00 a.m.
Categories: Employee issues, Video Games

Comments

#64395

Posted by unregistered user at 11/8/07 6:30 a.m.

It could very well be a smoothie bar or some such. Bar doesn't have to me alcoholic drinks.

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#64416

Posted by unregistered user at 11/8/07 7:58 a.m.

Remind me again how much money this division has lost so far?

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#64419

Posted by Todd Bishop at 11/8/07 8:05 a.m.

Regarding the first comment: That was my first thought, as well, but city planners say their understanding is that the plan would be to offer alcoholic drinks. Microsoft representatives have also referred to the space as a pub in their discussions with the city.

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#64640

Posted by unregistered user at 11/8/07 7:25 p.m.

Do B94, B95, B96 & B97 look like four swastikers to you ?

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#64679

Posted by unregistered user at 11/8/07 10:35 p.m.

Actully, 7:25pm, the four buildings you refer to look more like tic-tac-toe grids. Stop looking for things that aren't there. You probably sit in the corner and listen to recordings backwards trying to hear naughty words.

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#64811

Posted by unregistered user at 11/9/07 11:20 a.m.

A smoothie bar? You obviously don't know anything about game development. ;)

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#64860

Posted by unregistered user at 11/9/07 12:50 p.m.

Why not a smoothie bar? Even a pub that serves liquor could stand some improvements to the in-greedients used in Monty Cristo, Spanish & Irish coffiees...or better cinnamon in hot-toddies.

#64642 moreso like gears puzzle pieces, propellers. Not E words, lol,

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#64865

Posted by unregistered user at 11/9/07 12:59 p.m.

At a glance, the unexpanded west campus view reminds me of the base of a blender jar...sometimes hard to clean.

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#66220

Posted by unregistered user at 11/12/07 6:51 p.m.

Blender jar blades!

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#71901

Posted by unregistered user at 12/3/07 1:11 a.m.

Legal liability? Obviously you don't know much about the software industry. Many many groups hold Friday beer and snack informals, catered my MS catering services, and this is also common outside MS. They already have all those issues of liability.

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