By Will Parker | Wall Street Journal
Americans are up in arms over data centers. They worry about how much water these buildings use and fume at the amount of electricity they consume. People hate the way they look, too.
Now, a small number of builders are on a mission to ensure that new data centers don’t have to be eyesores.
Gensler, one of the world’s largest architecture firms, is leading the charge. It is drawing up plans for data centers that look more like Silicon Valley tech campuses or art museums, rather than windowless rectangles that neighbors often grouse about resembling prisons.It’s no different than any other building and it doesn’t deserve to look any worse than any other building,” said Geoffrey Diamond, design director at the firm.
Gensler’s strategy can entail making these often blank-faced barns for computer servers look more organic to the local surroundings.
