It's relevant because it puts into perspective how massive their campus is.
Thanks for the background! Where did you get this information (it sounds like you're already intimately familiar with it)? The caption on the image certainly doesn't convey it. IMO one shouldn't have to go to the comments section of an unrelated news site to learn the significance of a photo on your website.
I wouldn't be railing against it if it actually contributed to the article as supporting evidence (e.g. visual aide), such as if it was implemented with some sort of informational overlay, or if it was presented as a flat map (like the default Google Maps view) with labelled structures, zones, etc.
But it's not; it's just a photo lacking context.
The big hole in the ground (right in the middle of the image) eventually became this: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ImageGallery/ImageDetails...
In that picture, you see the common area. The buildings on the left and right both have places to eat, as well as some shops for employees only (like an AT&T store, a UPS store, and a few others). There is also usually an art exhibit in the left building. In the background, the green field you see is an olympic (iirc) sized soccer field. In the winter, they sometimes put an ice skating rink on a portion of it.
Surrounding the area seen in that image (but not visible, unfortunately), are four new office buildings in the same style as the common buildings (but twice as tall). They're referred to as Studios A, B, C or D. One of them houses a lot of the XBox teams (and Microsoft game studios), not sure about the other 3.
The Microsoft campus is truly a marvel. It's giant, has it's own transportation system, has the world's largest underground parking garage (it's actually underneath the buildings in the image I linked above) and every day over 50,000 people come and go to it. It's a mini-city in every way.
