Visiting company headquarters
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Some company headquarters are open to public visits and even offer tours.
Some people go to company offices just to get a photo taken next to the company logo. It may seem silly, but people will go to Facebook's headquarters, take a picture of themselves there, and then post the picture on (guess where?) their Facebook page.
Some companies have their visitor facilities at an alternative location, for example a company museum, shop or exhibition center. Companies that operate in several locations may have the official headquarters in a small office that is separate from any of the regular company facilities - there may only be a small nameplate to see there.
Destinations
United States
Silicon Valley
Much of Silicon Valley's fabled culture of innovation takes place within the confines of its suburban office parks, which are actually quite bland. Most Silicon Valley companies are too busy creating products and making money to offer much to tourists. Seeing the headquarters of so many legendary high-tech companies and venture capital firms in one place may be fun at first, especially for techno-geeks, but the novelty wears off after a few hours, and tourists should better stick to the campuses of Google (Mountain View), Apple (Cupertino) and possibly Facebook (Menlo Park in the Peninsula, a few miles north of downtown Palo Alto).
The only major Silicon Valley company that openly caters to tourists is Intel, which has a free small museum at its Santa Clara headquarters dedicated to its semiconductor business. At a lesser degree, Google has fun Android statues on-campus specifically aimed at visitors, and its colorful bikes and propeller hats are otherwise worth the trip. In addition, Apple operates a Visitor Center next to its brand new Apple Park headquarters—a colossal circular building which is by itself like no other—with an augmented reality model of the site and a balcony overlooking it.
New York state
Washington state
- 3 Amazon, Seattle. Open to the public on the first and third Saturdays of the month. Advanced reservations essential.
- 4 Microsoft, Redmond. The Microsoft campus has a Visitor Center which has a few product displays.
- 5 Starbucks, Seattle. The original Starbucks is in Downtown, there is the Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room in Capitol Hill-Central District, and the headquarters are in a former Sears department store in Sodo-Georgetown.
Georgia
- 6 Coca-Cola headquarters, Atlanta/Midtown. The main building in the complex is 29 storeys high.
Michigan
Australia
- 7 ANZ Banking Museum, Melbourne CBD. M-F 10AM-3PM except public holidays. Housed in the late-19th century Gothic Revival ANZ Bank building, it walks through the history of Australian banking from Indigenous bartering economies to finance of the future. The ANZ headquarters are along the road at 833 Collins St. Free.
- 8 Reserve Bank of Australia Museum, Sydney City Centre. Hosted by the Reserve Bank of Australia in its city headquarters, this museum displays Australian bank notes and currency from the earliest issues to the present day. Interesting but basic. free admission.
Japan
Germany
- 10 BMW Museum, Olympic Park, North Munich (U-Bahn U3: Olympiazentrum). Extensive museum displaying the evolution of motoring technology, from the earliest days to future concepts. The headquarters of the this large car maker are across the road in the four cylinder BMW Tower which was built between 1968 and 1972.
- 11 AutoStadt, Wolfsburg. AutoStadt is the home of Volkswagen AG. AutoStadt theme park is a city in itself and offers entertainment, dining, tours, driving, and more.
United Kingdom
- 12 Bank of England Museum, City of London, ☏ +44 20 7601-5545. M–F 10AM–5PM. Charts the history of the bank from 1694 to the present day. A highlight is the opportunity to handle a genuine bar of gold. The Bank of England is the central (reserve) bank for the United Kingdom and was founded by royal charter in 1694 and nationalised in 1946. The bank moved to its present location in 1734. Nearby are the buildings of the London Stock Exchange, the London Metals Exchange and the impressive modern insurance offices of Lloyds of London. Free.
- 13 Museum on the Mound, Old Town, Edinburgh. Tu-F 10AM-5PM, Sa 1-5PM. Museum about money and coins, in the basement of the Palladian pile of the historic Bank of Scotland headquarters. The Bank of Scotland is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, but still retains its own identity and prints its own banknotes. The Bank of Scotland was established in 1695; the headquarters date from 1801, but what you see is mainly the result of an impressive redesign by David Bryce in 1863. Free.
Sleep
A few grand former company headquarters have been converted into hotels. Some of these retain some historic artefacts from their days as headquarters.
Japan
- 1 Marufukuro, Central Kyoto. The former Nintendo headquarters, built in 1933, converted into a 18 room hotel. The library is full of Nintendo memorabilia and books.