Archinect - News

Facebook to invest $150 million to build 2,000 affordable homes in Bay Area

2020-12-10T13:28:00-05:00

Facebook plans to invest $150 million to build 2,000 homes for low-income residents in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Silicon Valley-based social media giant said Wednesday the money would support the development of affordable homes for families making less than 30 percent of the region’s median income.

According to The Real Deal, "the funds will be available to local governments and nonprofit groups in the form of low-interest loans. Projects in San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties are eligible. " The investment is due for full distribution by 2026, reports The Real Deal.

Mark Zuckerberg unveils a home operating AI app called "Jarvis"

2016-12-20T14:05:00-05:00

At last, somebody understands Mark Zuckerberg, and it's an artificial intelligence app that speaks with the wisdom and patience of Morgan Freeman. Partially an internet of things melded with a changeable, celebrity-cameo Siri (Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a brief aural appearance), Zuckerberg's home-running app Jarvis is demonstrated by the inventor himself in the video below.

Facebook in the news:

Mark Zuckerberg's resolution for 2016: build an at-home AI "like Jarvis in Iron Man"

2016-01-05T15:32:00-05:00

"I'm very interested in using voice and face recognition to set lights and temperature as well depending on who is in what rooms, etc," he writes. [...] The really interesting part of Zuckerberg's AI plan is when it moves past standard smart home controls and into his work. Describing the "simple AI" that he intends to build, Zuckerberg writes, "On the work side, it'll help me visualize data in VR to help me build better services and lead my organizations more effectively."

You can read Mark Zuckerberg's entire Facebook post on his AI home-plan here. Referring to already commercially available "smart home" technologies (such as temperature, entertainment, or security controls), Zuckerberg plans to build on existing products to make them more responsive with less input – to be able to recognize his presence vs. his wife's, for example, without either of them "announcing" themselves to the tech.

More heavy-hitting forays into the "smart home":

Facebook hires Gehry again for next two buildings in Menlo Park

2015-04-07T20:10:00-04:00

The same week Facebook employees moved into a new Frank Gehry-designed building with a massive green roof, the social media giant submitted plans to Menlo Park for the construction of two office buildings on 58 acres it purchased last year. [...] Also designed by Gehry, the two office buildings would total 985,719 square feet and have a similar look, feel and height to the new Facebook building across from its main headquarters.

Previously: Gehry's new Facebook campus opens for business and much more

Gehry's new Facebook campus opens for business

2015-03-31T12:59:00-04:00

But the Facebook building is something different. [...] For one, it’s more subdued. ... Gehry held back for Facebook. “From the start, Mark wanted a space that was unassuming, matter-of-fact, and cost effective,” Gehry says in statement, referring to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “He did not want it overly designed.” [...] The open floor plan has become a cliche. But Facebook helped set the cliche—and it takes the idea so much further than most.

Facebook's "Zee Town" and the rocky history of corporate urbanism

2015-03-16T12:52:00-04:00

In founding a town for some 10,000 of his employees to call their own, the Facebook mogul is following generations of entrepreneurs, from the Dutch East India Company to Walt Disney. [...] Zuckerberg’s version is to take the form of a 200-acre private municipality adjacent to Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters, masterplanned by long-time collaborator Frank Gehry and ever-so-humbly dubbed “Zee Town”.

Previous news from Gehry's work with Zuckerberg:

Facebook, Gehry Build Idea Factory for RipStik Geeks

Frank Gehry about his Battersea Power Station project, Norman Foster, Mark Zuckerberg