Meg Whitman Says These New Offices Are The 'Symbolic Rebirth' Of HP

Julie Bort

2013-01-11T00:43:15Z

On January 16, HP will hold an official ribbon-cutting to open its newly remodeled customer meeting center at its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

This building is already home to CEO Meg Whitman, who famously ditched her cushy office in favor of an ordinary cubicle. reports Businessweek.

At the center: an oak tree planted in the 1960s by Hewlett-Packard founders William Hewlett and David Packard, who long ago planted HP's roots in Palo Alto, near Stanford University.

Construction for the new building took a year, almost as long as Whitman has been CEO. And it's been another year of turmoil for the iconic Silicon Valley tech company.

“Without overstating things, this is symbolic of the rebirth of Hewlett-Packard anchored by the foundation of that oak tree,” Whitman told Businessweek.

HP sent Business Insider some photos of the new building.

Gone is the dated 1980s decor, replaced with a modern entry and lots of windows.

The building was built around a tree planted by Hewlett and Packard themselves. The founders remain revered figures at the company.

The oak tree symbolizes the blending of HP's past and future.

The building features floor-to-ceiling windows.

Off-white '80s decor has been replaced with modern furniture.

The building is open and airy.

Naturally, technology rings the room, with these interactive displays ...

... the displays can be changed to show off any message or image. Note the modern art above.

The building is a place to showcase HP's latest data-center equipment ...

... and the meeting rooms show off its videoconferencing and networking gear.

There are also showrooms full of PCs, tablets, and printers—the gear that forms HP's present reality.

Today, there are a lot of great enterprise tech companies in the Valley ...