Cisco CEO John Chambers wasn’t the most popular guy in the industry last week when he said the network giant’s sales in the U.S. and Europe grew less in January than predicted, and that he next few quarters will be “extremely challenging.”
But apparently Chambers is making many new friends in the Palo Alto neighborhood where he recently bought a 15,000 square foot mansion. According to a San Jose Mercury New article, Chambers and his wife got the go-ahead to tweak the design to make the house less obtrusive and plant more than 300 trees to screen the sprawling mansion and its 3,400-square-foot guest house from view.
It seems the “house” was a little large for the neighbors but it was sitting unoccupied for the past 5 years and no one could change anything. According to the article, Chambers has won over the neighbors. “He held an open house last fall and showed them the plans. To soften the look of the house, he’s replacing the slate roof with weathered barrel tile. He’s removing some windows, building trellises and growing vines on the walls for camouflage. And he’s planting a forest – more than 360 oaks, redwoods and other native trees – around the property to screen it from view,” the article stated.
“We’re just thrilled,” said Jan Terry, president of the Palo Alto Hills Neighborhood Association told the newspaper. “It’s in nobody’s best interest to have a large, unfinished house in the neighborhood. And we love the Chambers’ plans.”
Now if there’s any way those folks could buy some routers and switches….
Layer 8 in a box
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