Oracle Headquarters on San Francisco Peninsula

To continue these fun explorations of some significant technology players, I head north to mid-peninsula, to find this company.

Where am I?

  

Visitors will find a few large and familiar icons along Highway 101, the inner freeway around the San Francisco bay. It is because of the shape of the bay, that directions may be confusing when you first start driving in this region. You find roads going east, west, north and south – yes, they are the same road.
   
The region between Redwood City and San Carlos, and north of Palo Alto ~ an area we still include as a part of Silicon Valley is where the famous Oracle Headquarters is next to the bay. 

As you drive by, you will see six cylindrical glass buildings with the Oracle name at the top. The buildings are visible for people to see from the air and land. I have heard some stories where people nicknamed the headquarters, Emerald City, to describe this campus.

 
I visited the campus and found a relaxing place next to the “Oracle” lake which is centered between these buildings.  You may drive around the perimeter (outer road) of this corporate campus. 

There is a walking, running trail, with exercise equipment to work out on next to this road. The people in this area are quite active. I watched many people walking between buildings around this lake – to lunch or meetings. They have their own conference center, cafeterias, and utilities – a city within a city.

 Oracle’s original name was Software Development Laboratory, and first located in the city of Santa Clara, when the company was created in 1977.  The Oracle founders are: the often talked about, flamboyant, Larry Ellison, along with Bob Miner and Ed Oates. 

It was in 1989 the new headquarters were created and became a familiar showcase as we know today. This location is a short helicopter ride from Woodside, CA, where you will find one of Mr. Ellison's residences.

     
For facts and figures, please see press releases at Oracle.com.  Fun stories of these growing years of the people with this Software (and now hardware) giant may be discovered in The Silicon Boys and their Valley of Dreams by David A. Kaplan. I recently read some fun stories about working at Oracle in the book, Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. [Ad below, click to buy]  

Sharing the fun side of Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco ~ The Fun Tour Guru
 

 

All pictures taken with my old Canon point and shoot. I will get new pictures with my iPhone 5s upon request.