Facebook Building 2nd Data Center in Oregon

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The exterior of the Facebook data center in Prineville, Oregon. The company said Tuesday that it will build a second huge data center on the same campus. (Photo credit: Alan Brandt).

Facebook will build a second huge data center on its campus in Prineville, Oregon, the company confirmed tonight. The company will begin construction in October on a facility similar to its existing 300,000 square foot data center, Facebook Data Center Manager Ken Patchett announced at a Prineville City Council meeting Tuesday night.

"We believe the construction of the phased expansion of Building 2, and the operation of Building 1, staffing and supplying of the Prineville Data Center will continue to have a positive impact on the Crook County-Prineville economy," Patchett told the city officials.

Now at 750 Million Users

The announcement reflects the continued growth of Facebook, which now has 750 million users - more than twice the 350 million users the social network has when it began the Prineville project. The company is also building a new data center in Rutherford County, North Carolina.

The second building in Prineville is expected to create up to 450 construction jobs, with the project lasting approximately a year. Facebook also said it will likely add 10 full-time jobs in Prineville, where it currently employs 54 full-time employees providing building maintenance, security and server maintenance.

The Prineville project is Facebook’s first company-built facility, and is optimized from the two-story structure right down to the servers to reflect the company’s vision for energy efficient data center operations. The Prineville 1 (PRN1) data center features custom-built servers, racks and UPS units.

Facebook built the data center in two phases. the first phase came online in April, and the second is scheduled to be completed in early 2012.

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