>> Hello world and welcome to Microsoft Unboxed.
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Every week, we're taking a look at
the best tech stories from Microsoft,
as well as the people behind them.
I'm here with my friend and co-host,
Sonia Dara, and I'm Colleen O'Brien.
Sonia has a story that I am not privy
to and I have a story that Sonia knows nothing about.
We're looking at campus refreshes,
all of the updates that are going on around headquarters,
HQ right here in Redmond, Washington,
as well as some of our other campuses.
>> So when was your first time stepping on Microsoft campus?
>> That was in 2011.
>> Dating yourself.
>> Yeah. I had just gotten hired at Microsoft fresh out of college
and I will never forget my first ride over
the 520 bridge and I saw a bald eagle.
>> Welcome to Microsoft.
>> It was just a really profound experience.
>> I think the first time I
technically stepped foot was during my interview.
When it rains here, it doesn't pour, right?
It's normally just like the gray and it happened to
be a day where I was coming in sideways and I was like,
"I made a huge mistake, what is happening."
My first day actually on the job,
you picked me up and she was on duty of making sure
I didn't get lost in our massive campus.
We're driving around campus a little bit, and all of a sudden,
is that a soccer field I was like,
"What is happening, this is so cool."
This is like a college campus.
>> Yeah. It's nice to have some of these amenities,
like restaurants or there's a hairdresser here.
>> Yeah. I haven't used it though, have you?
>> No, I haven't.
>> Yeah.
>> We could if we wanted to.
>> It's nice to know that it's here.
>> But it sounds like you might have some stories to tell me,
maybe relating to the campus refresh.
>> I do. I'm going to tell you a little bit more about
our HQ, Redmond Campus refresh.
This campus refresh was announced in November of 2017,
and it's a five to seven-year project.
This project is going to add 2.5
million square feet of additional office space to this campus.
>> Wow, there's a lot of new people and a lot of new space.
>> To be honest, I'm not sure how
the space correlates to new employees.
We might just have more space to move around.
>> More space for activities.
>> For activities.
>> More room for activities.
>> This 2.5 million square feet will be in addition to
our already 500-acre headquarters here.
>> Oh, that's too big.
>> We're going to make this move from a 125 buildings to a 131.
>> Some of them are actually getting torn down and rebuilt, right?
>> Correct, correct. Some of
the buildings that you're referring to are
these 1980s style X buildings.
Oftentimes, you'll enter, you're trying
to find your meeting and you're over here,
and you have to go this way to go this way, or this way,
to go all the way up there,
it's a total disaster.
I've been turned around in those buildings a dozen times.
>> Having to find the bathroom if you really
have to go is the worst.
>> One of my favorite reminders of how old the building
was were the ashtrays in the women's restroom.
>> It's really strange to be thinking about mixed reality or
the future of Cloud computing and
then to go into those restrooms.
I'm always thinking about the politics of these bathroom spaces.
>> You're always thinking about that?
>> I'm always thinking about that.
But for women in tech who need to go take a break,
maybe it was really nice for them
to have a cigarette break in there.
A very lauded part of this project is the cricket pitch.
>> Whoa, I didn't hear about this.
>> This is predicted to be
the first corporate creation of a cricket pitch on a campus.
>> This is awesome.
>> Yeah. The coolest parts of the campus refresh for
me is going to be how much pedestrian space is there.
>> That's right.
>> It's really exciting that there's going to be
so much space for us to be walking around campus.
There's even a bridge that's going to go over
the highway to connect the campus.
>> That's carless, right?
It's just pedestrian bridge.
>> Correct.
>> Yeah. Because this one right now,
it's dangerous is like playing
Frogger and you're hoping you don't get run over.
>> This is going to be a lot of updated buildings as well.
>> There's also this plaza that they're going to build.
>> Yeah. A plaza that will fit 10,000 people.
I picture like a concert happening there.
Yeah. It's like a great space for a lot of people to gather.
>> I wanted to also share a little bit more about
a sister campus of
ours that's going to also be going through refresh,
down in California in Silicon Valley.
Microsoft is going to be the first tech company to achieve
net-zero non-potable water certification
under the Living Building Challenge.
Okay. We're down in California,
the really big issue is droughts.
Really, really focused on how can we make sure
that we are as resourceful as possible with water.
So they're actually harvesting rainwater,
and they're building an onsite wastewater plant
for treatment to ensure that
non-potable water is being used
in scenarios where no one's going to be drinking it, right?
So before drinking water is in toilets and
drinking water is being used to water the plants,
and now they're moving everything over so it's net-zero.
So there is also ton of
solar panels because they get a little bit more central
over here to basically make it a LEED Platinum certified campus.
>> That's the top.
>> That's over the top.
They're trying to make sure they don't have
a negative impact on the environment and the river over there,
so they're taking a lot of this into consideration.
So they basically understand not everyone's
an extrovert and not everyone's going to really
love being in open workspace,
so they created these quiet booth spaces,
and almost like telephone booths that looks
like you can jump in and Doctor Who it,
and take your own phone call,
or there's a library in one of them which is really nice,
and you can even check out books and chill.
There are so many game rooms, I'm like,
"Are you trying to get in some work or not?"
>> Something that I've been reflecting on is building inclusively,
building for people who have different work styles.
That's really helpful to me to hear that we are considering
so many different things in the build out of this modernization,
and I hope that that becomes a trend
that other companies are taking note of.
>> Yeah. I hope so too.
Hopefully, it would be this ripple effect that we can
see not just sustainability,
but also modernization of the work spaces and
recognizing that there's different ways
to communicate and collaborate now.
>> Yeah. Michael Ford talked about
how he's not only thinking about the people who are here now,
but present-day eighth graders who will be here in the future.
>> If you're an eighth grader right now,
you can imagine yourself working on
Microsoft campus with us in a few short years,
and it'll be totally new,
renovated, and magical, I promise you.
I don't know why I said magical.
>> You're nice, like warmed my heart a little bit.
So we're going to wrap up our story times segment and
transition now to outside the box.
>> What's in the box.
>> I'm going to read a question and
you'll have 30 seconds to answer,
and then we'll swap.
Thirty seconds on the clock please.
>> Thirty seconds on the clock.
>> What's the grossest food you ever had to eat to be polite.
>> I was in Seoul,
in Korea with my sister,
and we were told to try fugu which is puffer fish.
The whole crazy thing about it is If you don't cut it correctly,
it can release neurotoxins and you can die.
But we're like, "Oh, let's do this, it's exciting."
We go and this very,
very nice woman is coming and serving us and we're super-excited,
we go in for the first bite, and we're like.
>> Really gross?
>> Yeah. The texture was just really.
>> You can't talk anymore, time's up.
>> It was an eight-course menu.
>> Of puffer fish?
>> Of puffer fish.
We were almost willing to pay to
have it stop and we were trying to be nice,
and she's like, you like? I'm like.
Yes, we like. Thirty seconds, ready for Colleen.
This is great. If you could only wear
one type of shoes for the rest of your life,
what type of shoes would it be?
>> It would be glerups.
Glerups slippers with the rubber sole
so you could go outside in them.
They are wool, they're so comfortable.
I wear them all the time now,
but if I could wear them at
work or walking down the street, I do that too.
>> It's socially acceptable. I'm laughing
because you were just telling me about these.
>> I can't stop talking about them.
If you would like us to answer different questions,
you can submit them at the address below.
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That's it for this episode,
we'll see you next week.
>> See you.
>> Hey, everyone. If you can't get enough of us,
I would highly recommend subscribing to our podcast,
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