First-time visitors to Silicon Valley often want to see where the technology magic happens. Local hosts know that means showing them the corporate headquarters at campuses in the South Bay.
Best bets are Google, Apple and Intel, which have visitor centers or museums to whet tourists’ appetites. Meta’s campus in Menlo Park is interesting, too, but it is mostly closed to the public.
Google is the easiest to visit, with an onsite store, café, art installations and a visitor center next to its headquarters in Mountain View. The Visitor Experience, as it is called, is at 2000 N. Shoreline Blvd. in the Gradient Canopy, a landmark building. It includes a community room called Huddle where events, workshops and talks are given. City-owned Charleston Park is next door.
In nearby Cupertino, the Apple headquarters building is famous for its circular spaceship design. The Apple Park Visitor Center, across the street at 10600 N. Tantau Ave., includes an Apple store, a café and a 3-D model of the campus. The headquarters building, called the ring, can be seen faintly from the covered patio on the second floor of the visitor center. Only the roof, the round design and a few windows of the structure, which is surrounded by trees, are visible.
On a recent sunny afternoon, 40 students from Prairie View A&M University, a historically African American university in Texas, packed the Apple Visitor Center. Members of the school’s marching band also toured Apple headquarters, which are not generally open to the public.
“We got a chance to get information about the building,” Brandon Hopkins, associate director of the band.
From Apple, it’s about a 15-minute drive to Santa Clara to the home of a corporation whose name recalls an earlier time in Silicon Valley history: Intel. Founded in 1968, the former technology giant is experiencing declines in market share and profitability.
But visitors can relive its glory days and learn about semiconductor chip and microprocessor manufacturer’s product history at its free museum and gift shop at 2200 Mission College Blvd. There are displays explaining chip design, as well as one with six of founder Gordon Moore’s business cards.
On the same afternoon as Apple’s Visitor Center was bustling, the Intel Museum was nearly deserted, with just four visitors.
While Intel, Apple and Google have easy-to-find parking and easy access, Meta, the parent company of Facebook in Menlo Park next to San Francisco Bay, does not. Visitors often pose for a picture in front of its corporate sign at 1 Hacker Way, having parked in the employee lot behind the sign.
It seemed promising to check out Meta Park, described on the city of Menlo Park’s website as “a privately owned accessible open space,” located on 2.2 acres nearby. However, it is difficult to find and there’s no vehicle parking. Access is easiest by a bicycle trail that snakes through the circular park on its way to the Bay.
The park, a quiet spot, is a circular dot of green surrounded by benches and fences. It’s adjacent to buildings on Meta’s west campus designed by famed architect Frank Gehry.
Apple Park Visitor Center is at 10600 N. Tantau Ave., Cupertino; Google Visitor Experience is at 2000 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View; Intel is at 2200 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara.
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