IBM Rochester is the facility of IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. The initial structure was designed by Eero Saarinen, who clad the structure in blue panels of varying hues after being inspired by the Minnesota sky, as well as IBM's nickname of "Big Blue". These features and the facility's size has earned it the nickname "The Big Blue Zoo" from employees. History Early years Groundbreaking for the facility took place on July 31, 1956. When it was first completed, there was 576,000 square feet (53,500 m2) of floor space. There is 3.1 million square feet (290,000 m2) today on the main campus, more than half the size of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Rumors have appeared over the years suggesting that the structure was designed to look like a punched card from above, but this is more due to the facility's expansion over the years rather than an intention by Saarinen. The building was first dedicated in 1958, but has been expanded considerably since then. Current developments Employment at the site has gone through several cycles of growth and collapse, but is over twice what it was in the 1950s. On May 4, 2016, it was announced that IBM would consolidate its remaining employees into the eight buildings on the east side of the complex and sell the remaining facilitates to a separate entity. This occurred after years of IBM renting out its various facilities to companies it had spun or sold off such as HGST. The site's employee count (excluding contractors) was reported to be 2,740 in 2013 and 2,791 in 2017, a steep decline from the high of over 8,000. In February 2018 the property was sold to Industrial Realty Group of Los Angeles. On April 24, 2018, in a presentation to the local community, it was announced that the name of the site would be changed to the Rochester Technology Campus. Products The mile-long facility is best known as the plant that produced the AS/400 computer system. The AS/400 system was itself an advancement of the System/38 that was introduced several years earlier with an inbuilt Relational Data Base Management System (RDBMS) making it leading edge for its time. The AS/400 was later rebranded as the iSeries. Development of the OS/400 operating system, now known as IBM i, continues at Rochester. IBM Power Systems development is still done at this site. PureSystems were originally assembled at this site,