A look inside Uber's Manhattan office, where employees of the $66 billion company have wine on tap and can bring their dogs to work

Hollis Johnson

While a whopping 50 million people have taken more than 2 billion Uber rides in 425 cities around the world since the company was founded in 2009, very few know what goes on behind the scenes at the $66 billion firm based in San Francisco.

Uber, a network and app that connects riders with nearby drivers, employs 8,000 people (not including drivers, who are contractors). About 230 of those employees are based in Uber's Manhattan office, which we recently visited to get a clearer picture of what the culture is really like.

Here's what we saw and learned:

When we arrived at the West 28th Street office in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, we found the building largely covered in scaffolding. Walking inside, we didn't know what to expect. Uber's Manhattan office is in an old freight warehouse and former nightclub. Sections of the brick building — now called Chelsea Terminal Stores — date back to 1891.

We were greeted by someone on the Uber communications team, who said Uber moved into the building in 2014. She also pointed out repurposed decorative elements from the building's warehouse days, like this old metal door.

Our tour guide took us up to the third floor of the building, where Uber occupies a 54,000-square-foot space. The Manhattan branch is a mixed office, incorporating teams such as engineering, communications, IT, HR, business development, and operations and logistics for the New York metro area.

Source: Uber