Apple Inc. has 1 Infinite Loop; Genentech Inc. has 1 DNA Way.But Facebook Inc. now lays claim to Silicon Valley’s premier vanityaddress: 1 Hacker Way. After journeying from a Harvard University dorm room to a rentedhouse in Palo Alto, Calif., to a series of temporary corporateoffices it quickly outgrew, the 8-year-old social networking gianthas set down permanent roots just in time for its initial publicoffering. And its splashy new campus in Menlo Park, Calif., has quicklybecome the envy of its Silicon Valley neighbors. Facebook, the hottest company to come out of the region sinceGoogle Inc., is expected to file papers this week to sell its stockto the public in an offering that could raise $10 billion and valuethe company as high as $100 billion. On a recent afternoon, the 57-acre campus hummed expectantly asmore than 2,000 employees, about half of whom will probably becomeinstant millionaires, were still settling in to their new digs. Inall the company has more than 3,000 employees in 35 offices in 20countries. Thirty miles south of San Francisco on the edge of tidal mudflats and salt marshes, the nine-building complex has room for upto 3,600. The company is seeking approval from Menlo Park to boostits head count to as many as 6,600. It has campaigned for months towin over Belle Haven, the largely Mexican-American neighborhoodnearby, and show that it will be a good neighbor to clear the wayfor its expansion. Facebook even bought a 22-acre site for a companion campus itplans to build on the other side of the divided highway that can bereached through an underground crossing that is wide enough forcars. Facebook will install a people mover in the crossing to ferryits staffers back and forth to the new campus that it hopes to haveready by 2014. The two campuses will give Facebook room for as manyas 9,400 employees. It’s all part of founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’sdrive to create an urban oasis for staffers, part of itstake-no-prisoners effort to one-up its chief rivals, such asGoogle, in the heated wars for top engineers and executives. “We are creating the new urban place to work,” said Facebookreal estate chief John Tenanes. Tenanes showed off slick maps of Facebook’s expansion plans in aconference room named “Charlie Bit Me” after the viral YouTubevideo. Employees voted on the irreverent themes for conferencerooms. Ties resulted in mixed concepts such as drinks and “StarWars”: Darth Jager, Skyywalker and Whiskey on the Ewoks. Little remains of the more staid former Sun Microsystems, whichfavored private offices, wall-to-wall carpeting and glass-walledconference rooms. Facebook has ripped open ceilings and walls to expose steelgirders and ductwork, peeled back carpets to concrete floorspolished with swirls. There are no cubicles or offices, not evenfor Zuckerberg, just long tables with super-high-IQ workersplugging away. That means Facebook can accommodate more staffers on the1-million-square-foot campus than Sun did, Tenanes said. Sundedicated about 270 square feet to each staffer, while Facebookdedicates just 150 square feet, Tenanes said. That helps Facebookuse about 30 percent to 35 percent less energy, he added. “Hack” has been doodled and scribbled on walls covered floor toceiling in chalkboard paint in the real-life equivalent of Facebookusers’ walls. (At the entrance to Facebook’s campus stands a giantwood sculpture that Facebook staffers created during a recenthack-athon that spells out “hack,” Facebook’s motto of moving fastand breaking things.) (EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM) Graffiti artist David Choe tagged the walls of the building thathouses Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives. Breakaway spacesthat Facebook calls “cozies” pop up everywhere for spontaneousmeetings. Micro-kitchens stocked with typical Silicon Valley fuel– Red Bull, chips and other snacks — are strategically placedthroughout the buildings so that no employee ever goes hungry.Vending machines dispense free soda or computer accessories. Employees can even hit the full-service bar Friday afternoon.The Shady Lady features an old-school vinyl bar purchased onclassified website Craigslist. Or if they are feeling nostalgic,they can sit down at a gray, midcentury-era metal desk topped witha Royal typewriter. The main attraction, especially around noon, is the first of twocafes to dish up gourmet grub from top chefs. It sports the designof a circuit board to efficiently and quickly flow 2,000 people inand out in an hour and change. Food carts serving such delicaciesas Korean tacos roam the campus. The focal point of the campus is a leafy central courtyard thatSun Microsystems filled with manicured greenery that gave it thefeel of an English garden, Tenanes said. Facebook uprooted and replanted elsewhere the Italian plum treesand other assorted plants. Now a road still covered in constructiondust and equipment slices through the 1,200-foot-long courtyardlined with half-painted low-slung stucco buildings. By March thetransformation from corporate courtyard to urban main street willbe complete. It will be lined with storefronts — restaurants, abike shop, a dry cleaners — shaded by awnings. In a nod toFacebook’s original digs on University Avenue in downtown PaloAlto, Zuckerberg even joked about opening an Oriental rug storepermanently going out of business. About halfway down will be an outdoor amphitheater with aJumbotron that can hold 500 for movie nights or big companyannouncements. (END OPTIONAL TRIM) One thing that still lingers from Sun Microsystems: All thedoors, which Facebook recycled, some of which still bear the logoof the company that used to burn so brightly in Silicon Valley butwas bought out by Oracle Corp. in 2010. It’s a subtle reminder ofwhat can happen to companies that don’t stay on top of theirgame. —— (c)2012 the Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at latimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services ———- PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):WRK-CPT-FACEBOOK-CAMPUS ———- Topics: t000047573,t000012820,t000047572,t000003086