Wonderful article. I was there just the other day and had the opportunity to go on a tour of their building. Their HQ is quite an incredible place and has an interesting story behind it. It was not the Internet Archive’s first building; in fact Brewster bought the building specifically because it happened to resemble their logo (it was a coincidence; his hunt for a new home for the business was not predicated on finding such a structure, it just happened to turn out that way).
The building itself looks like an old government building from the outside, but it was actually a Christian Science church! Why a church used a government looking building I’m not quite sure (maybe it’s a Christian Science thing?), but I like to think that it might’ve been a snarky swipe at separation of church and state. :P
The new owners have still kept the pews on the inside. If you happen to be in the area, it’s definitely worth a visit!
Wonderful article. I was there just the other day and had the opportunity to go on a tour of their building. Their HQ is quite an incredible place and has an interesting story behind it. It was not the Internet Archive’s first building; in fact Brewster bought the building specifically because it happened to resemble their logo (it was a coincidence; his hunt for a new home for the business was not predicated on finding such a structure, it just happened to turn out that way).
The building itself looks like an old government building from the outside, but it was actually a Christian Science church! Why a church used a government looking building I’m not quite sure (maybe it’s a Christian Science thing?), but I like to think that it might’ve been a snarky swipe at separation of church and state. :P
The new owners have still kept the pews on the inside. If you happen to be in the area, it’s definitely worth a visit!
They also had a major fire in San Francisco a little over a year ago: http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/11/fire-at-internet-archive-destroys-equipment-and-materials-but-data-safe/