I stumbled across a nicely done guide to Mountain View, CA. Not only does it have current information, it also has has a great historical perspective on the city that I’ve spent much of my working life in. On this page is a photo from the construction of Mountain Bay Plaza. This is the tallest building in Mountain View and for many miles around. I worked on the 7th floor for a few years. I had been told that it was designed to withstand earthquakes because the building was hung off of the top of its two shafts. A cafe that used to be on the ground floor had photos from the construction, so I was able to see how it was built. But my husband, who coincidentally worked in the same building for a different company (we did not know each other back then), had never seen photos of the construction, though I had told him how the building dangled off the top. He was really surprised when I showed him the photo. The building sways viciously during an earthquake, and that’s a good thing.

I often heard people refer to Mountain Bay Plaza as “The Dog Building”, and the origin of that is chronicled in the text under the photo, except the term used there is “Dog City”. The building remained vacant as it was completed during a recession. The owner put some dogs in the ground floor for protection and they would jump and bark at people going by. Sometimes the tale was exaggerated to claim that there were wolves loose in the building. Downtown Mountain View is still changing these days, with new construction, as usual, started in the boom and ending in a recession. The city planners are trying to maintain their downtown’s character with very specific plans for the future.