Microsoft released a new video Wednesday that shows the latest progress on a multi-year redevelopment project reshaping a large swath of its headquarters in Redmond, Wash.
In an update on its website, the company said workers are close to finishing the first building on the new East Campus, a Thermal Energy Center that will use hundreds of deep wells for clean energy to heat and cool the new buildings.
Among other tidbits, Microsoft said it is modernizing the famed “Lake Bill” to better match its natural surroundings. The lake, which is really more of a pond, was named after co-founder Bill Gates, and it’s one of the few elements being preserved from the company’s original Redmond campus.
The company also provided new details about artwork planned for the new campus; an original Microsoft mouse that will be “concealed” in one of the buildings; and a series of new all-electric kitchens that will use induction cooking as part of the company’s larger environmental goals.
The project is taking place on 72 acres of Microsoft’s 500-acre Redmond campus, with 3 million square feet of space replacing the original Microsoft buildings on the Redmond campus.
The company moved to Redmond in 1986 from nearby Bellevue, where Microsoft was based for a period of time after Gates and Paul Allen relocated the company from Albuquerque, N.M.
Microsoft said in February that the first office building in the new campus was on track for occupancy in late 2023. Prior to the pandemic, the first buildings were expected to open in 2022 and 2023.
