When Baan Co. finishes building a large office and training complex on 280 acres of farmland in Loudoun County, its employees will be able to traipse on pebbly paths winding through trees alongside the Potomac River. Inspired by the region's hunt-country heritage, the company wants to stable its own horses, which workers could ride on breaks.

The Dutch software firm is among several technology companies planning to pack their office complexes in Loudoun with niceties such as ergonomic chairs and restaurants but also with places to jog, bike and in-line skate. They view these lifestyle perks, as well as the semirural setting and relaxed business culture, as competitive tools with which to lure highly skilled employees over the next several decades.

"It gives us a tremendous advantage," said Kevin Calderwood, president of Baan's U.S. subsidiary, Baan Americas, in Reston. "The kind of lifestyle we can provide at work and surrounding areas is very attractive."

Loudoun isn't the only place where companies offer perks and easygoing office atmospheres. Across the region, technology firms have begun to offer new forms of lifestyle benefits as they compete for hard-to-find computer programmers, software engineers, technicians and network designers.

But in recent years, several technology firms have chosen to build large, campus-style developments in Loudoun, where there still are large swaths of land available for development and easy access to a major airport.

"Loudoun offers space," said Robert Templin, president of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. "You can design a campus, whereas those options are gone" in other parts of the Washington area.

For some companies, the built-in amenities help compensate for what's not in Loudoun County: an abundance of restaurants, shops and service providers.

County officials acknowledge that retailers are playing catch-up with the county's booming population and work force. By 2000, Loudoun's population is conservatively forecast to climb to 149,661, up 33 percent from 112,843 in 1995. The number of jobs is expected to rise 37 percent, to 72,732, by then.

Rather than wait for commercial development, some companies are taking matters into their own hands.

Just north of Dulles International Airport, WorldCom Inc. plans to build a huge office complex for as many as 30,000 workers that could include hotels, restaurants, stores and health clubs. It also said it was considering building a bike path for its employees, including many from its Internet subsidiary, UUNet Technologies Inc.

"Due to the competitive nature of the technology employment market, it is critical that WorldCom, and particularly UUNet, at this time provide amenities to the employees," the company wrote in plans filed with the county.

Such perks aren't just about making happy workers; they're about "keeping them close" to the mother ship, Templin said.

"Then they don't have to leave and disrupt their work," Templin said. "That's good for business."

Not everyone buys the argument, however, that high-tech workers mainly want scenic views from their office windows, access to bike paths, horses and fully equipped gyms as perquisites.

Bob Small, vice president of Career Network Services Inc., a Columbia recruiting firm, said the technology workers he deals with are mainly concerned with salaries, 401(k) retirement savings plans and stock options.

"The gyms, the restaurants, the free lunch, the tickets to the Orioles game -- really, that's great," Small said. "Then it's like, 'Show me the money.' "

Still, workers at the Dulles headquarters of Internet service provider America Online Inc., which employs about 1,000 people in Loudoun, appreciate being able to sip a cup of steaming java at a Starbucks cafe inside the building. They can buy stamps, drop off dry cleaning, seek inner peace at yoga classes and ride a stationary bike equipped with a laptop computer -- all without ever driving off the campus.

These goodies help AOL make up for the fact that it's located "in the middle of nowhere," a company spokesman said.

That's not something officials from Loudoun, often referred to by nonresidents as "the place where Dulles International Airport is," like to hear. But unfortunately for them, it's not so far from the truth. Check out the map, because the county seat is closer to West Virginia than to the District.

"When we first moved out here, it was really out in the country. It was like 'Oh, boy, that's far away,' " said Irwin Price, executive dean of George Washington University's Virginia campus off Route 7. "I still get that from people downtown who haven't been here."

Once their companies relocate in Loudoun, many employees end up moving from closer-in suburbs such as Fairfax County to take advantage of Loudoun's less expensive housing and less congested traffic. But there are others who won't budge -- and these are the people that technology firms hope to retain by offering more conveniences at their new locations.

Miguel Monteverde, a single, 30-year-old special-programming director for AOL, has decided not to move to Loudoun. Before his employer announced plans to move to Loudoun from Vienna, he liked the idea of living in a less-developed area.

"Then I started to think about whether or not my friends would come out to visit me," said Monteverde, who now lives in a high-rise condominium in Rosslyn. "I thought better of it."

Another balker is Glenn Feldhake, a 28-year-old engineer for Stanford Telecommunications Inc.'s division in Reston. He's happy living a few miles away from his office and just a half-hour's drive from his weekend job tending to the National Zoo's pygmy and Nile hippos.

When his boss, Frank Loch, announced plans to move the division to a newly built and much larger building in Loudoun this year, Feldhake at first was disappointed.

"Where I am now is that I'm not too happy about the move," he said. "If I were a disgruntled worker, it would be a thought in my head maybe to leave [the company]. But I'm not. And the commute is not the number one thing. It is possible for companies to offer things to make up for it."

One of those things is sheer space. The offices at the new division headquarters next to George Washington University's campus in Ashburn are much larger, so Feldhake has more room to spread out his papers and books. There's a shower, if he wants to jog during lunch. And if someday he and his wife decide to raise a family, he could take advantage of day care within walking distance of the new office building.

"This is very important to our employee base," said Loch, a Stanford vice president. "Some of our employees have infants. It's a real pressure on them. They don't want to give up their careers."

These technology firms also view Loudoun as a place where they can establish a more relaxed corporate culture that will appeal to employees, especially during a shortage of qualified software engineers, computer programmers and network designers.

Workers such as Charles Green, a 41-year-old software engineer at Telos Corp., said he doesn't mind the odd or long hours associated with his job. In return, Telos officials don't care if he and his colleagues wear blue jeans or buckle on their in-line skates for a few laps around the parking lot.

At midday, he often joins Telos's lunch-time bicycle club. The group hits the nearby Washington & Old Dominion Trail, a paved path running 46 miles from Arlington to Purcellville.

"It's kind of refreshing to get a break and get out in the sunshine," he said. "The fresh air revives me."