Matthew Whilden has been at Microsoft for 11 years. For about 30 minutes on Tuesday, the senior software engineer did his best to erase a 34-year-old piece of company history.
Whilden was behind the controls of a construction excavator with a claw at the end as he tore into the facade of Building 1, one of a dozen original structures on the company’s headquarters campus that are being knocked down to make way for a major renovation project.
The new campus will be in close proximity to a Sound Transit light rail station just off 520, as that transportation link from Seattle to Redmond is expected to be completed when the new buildings begin to open. An 1,100-foot pedestrian- and bike-only bridge will also span the highway, connecting the new campus to the west campus and shortening walk times between the two significantly.
