Aol’s New Palo Alto Headquarters

Stephen Searer — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:00:47 +0000

Aol has been busy lately with acquisitions of companies like Techcrunch, Huffington Post, and Thing Labs among others. With a blossoming talent pool, AOL decided to move its West Coast headquarters to a new corporate space in Palo Alto as part of this effort and brought in Studio O+A to give the office a fresh design.

Studio O+A adds

“The existing space retained a distinctly 1980s corporate aesthetic: drop ceilings hanging overevery office, high cubicles separating employees into tightly defined workstations, dark finishes,and oblique lines. O+A restored the space to a clean, white canvas—exposing the ceilings,stripping the walls to reveal the structure, and generally creating a spatial equivalent to the transparency that AOL was bringing to every aspect of its business.”

In my latest visit to the Bay Area, I was able to visit the space and can say that it was breathtaking. The space has a very youthful feel, some of the features include “exposed ceilings, concrete floors, expansive sightlines, and modern furniture all contribute to the industrial look. The result is a space that communicates what it is made of and how it was built.”

Another cool feature is the kitchen area, which is dubbed the “Town Hall”. “The kitchen’s bench-seating, amplelight, and bursts of color against a white palette go well with the game and relaxation area. It is centrally located to bring together staff from departments that might not otherwise interact.”

Overall, the space is a wonderful collection of eye-catching touches of color, furniture, and materials. Loads of natural light flood the space. While the majority of these images are from the second floor, the first floor will house a startup incubator and Techcrunch’s offices.

Image credit: Jasper Sanidad

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AOL Offices – India

Stephen Searer — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:30:16 +0000

AOL, the company everyone loves to hate, has been one of the world’s largest internet powerhouses for a long time. Little known fact: The little running guy’s name is Mr. Fitzsnoogins. Being that the company was so large, and that keeping costs down for large companies always a key, AOL decided to open up an office in Hyderabad, India. The office has the typical world-time clocks, though these star Mr. Fitzsnoogins. All-in-all, this office is just about as standard as they come.

NOTE: I Am Sleepy. This post was created a little too late at night after previewing ‘I Am Legend’.

(click images to enlarge)

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IMAGE CREDIT: Images snapped by flickr user vravindran.

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