My Visit to Pixar: Brooklyn

Pixar's Phase II building as seen from Park Avenue

During my visit to the giant animation studio stationed in Emeryville on May 13th, I was lucky enough to enter the recently opened Phase II building at Pixar, more commonly known to Pixarians as Brooklyn.

I felt honoured to be one of the very first people from outside of Pixar to get to actually go inside and see the new building. The first thing I must mention is the beauty of the architecture in the building, which was absolutely marvelous. The moment you enter you realize how much planning and hard thinking went in to design the wonderful building.

Here are a few fun facts about Brooklyn:

• At the entrance, there is concept art from Brave, the upcoming 2012 Pixar feature, on display.
• Beside the door to the Brooklyn recording studio, there is the "STAND BY/SCARE" sign from the Scare Floor in Monsters, Inc.
• All throughout the building, you can find hidden metallic silhouettes of Pixar characters imprinted on the ground.
• Behind the chimney there is a secret room, similar to the Lucky 7 and the Love Lounge in the main building.
• There is another cereal bar in the second building! The only difference is that the Brooklyn cereal bar is a different style.

Pixar has not yet released images of the interior of Brooklyn, so I was not able to take pictures of the inside, but I can say that it sure was a magnificent building, and a great expansion to the Pixar studio grounds!