[4] The headquarters of the European Southern Observatory and its Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre are located on the campus.

When completed, it will house offices, stores, restaurants, a church, a hotel and convention center, and guest apartments.

Two streams also run from south to north, fed by the Schwabinger Bach and the Nymphenburg-Biedersteiner Kanal [de].

By bicycle, it can be reached from Munich via the Isarradweg (Isar Cycle Path) without road crossings; a connection to the Münchner Radschnellweg [de] is planned.

Those who missed the last bus in the early evening had to rely on hitchhiking to get home, which earned the campus the nicknames Garchosibirsk and Novogarchinsk.

[10] Since 2006, the campus has been connected to the Munich U-Bahn network with the Garching-Forschungszentrum station, with an interval of 5 minutes during rush hour.

In 1957, the first German research reactor, the 4 MW Forschungsreaktor München [de], marked the beginning of the Garching campus.

In operation until 2000, its domed building in the shape of an "atomic egg" became a landmark of the city of Garching, and has been listed as a historical monument.