Flexibility. Transparency. Nature. These are the primary qualities of Google's newly released proposal to remake its four existing campuses in Mountain View, Calif. For the first time, the tech giant is designing and building offices from scratch.
The master plan, a collaboration by Bjarke Ingels of BIG and Thomas Heatherwick of Heatherwick Studio, calls for covering a series of highly-flexible, amenity-rich office blocks with circus-tent-like canopies made of a translucent material (material is still unknown, perhaps a ETFE pillow system).
The scheme moves parking below grade, replacing the current sea of asphalt parking lots with parks, tree-shaded meadows, a bike path (called the Green Loop), community gardens, and a winding creek criss-crossed by pedestrian bridges, according to Fast Company. It also includes a public plaza with retail space.
The strong connection with nature extends inside the buildings, as well. The soaring translucent canopies create expansive atrium spaces complete with lush gardens, running tracks, eating areas, and places of respite. The Green Loop path will weave through urban and natural areas, including the interior spaces.
Within the canopies, building segments operate like furniture—light, tactile, and reconfigurable, according to Google.
"The idea is simple," said Google's Vice President of Real Estate, David Radcliffe. "Instead of constructing immoveable concrete buildings, we’ll create lightweight block-like structures which can be moved around easily as we invest in new product areas. Our self-driving car team, for example, has very different needs when it comes to office space from our Search engineers."
In a blog post titled, "Rethinking office space," Radcliffe offered more details on the project:
Not the sexiest title for a blog post, I know. But as we’ve inhabited a variety of workplaces—including a garage in Menlo Park, a farmhouse in Denmark and an entire New York city block—we’ve learned something about what makes an office space great. And we’re excited to put that into practice, starting here at our home in Mountain View.
Today we’re submitting a plan to redevelop four sites—places where we already have offices but hope to significantly increase our square footage—to the Mountain View City Council. It's the first time we'll design and build offices from scratch and we hope these plans by Bjarke Ingels at BIG and Thomas Heatherwick at Heatherwick Studio will lead to a better way of working.
The idea is simple. Instead of constructing immoveable concrete buildings, we’ll create lightweight block-like structures which can be moved around easily as we invest in new product areas. (Our self-driving car team, for example, has very different needs when it comes to office space from our Search engineers.) Large translucent canopies will cover each site, controlling the climate inside yet letting in light and air. With trees, landscaping, cafes, and bike paths weaving through these structures, we aim to blur the distinction between our buildings and nature.
Of course, this project is about much more than just office space; it’s about doing more with the local community as well. So we’re adding lots of bike paths and retail opportunities, like restaurants, for local businesses. We also hope to bring new life to the unique local environment, from enhancing burrowing owl habitats to widening creek beds. And we’re committed to do everything we can to save energy—our recent agreement to offset our energy consumption in North Bayshore with renewable energy includes the development of this proposal.
We chose Mountain View for our headquarters 15 years ago because we love the beauty of the bay, the close proximity to great universities, the family-friendly environment and the chance to work in a city at the heart of Silicon Valley. Today, we want to create office spaces that don’t just provide a great home for Google, but which also work for the city that has given us so much.
We look forward to working with our neighbors at the City Council on this proposal—and the future of Mountain View’s North Bayshore.
Related Stories
Industry Research | Jan 23, 2024
Leading economists forecast 4% growth in construction spending for nonresidential buildings in 2024
Spending on nonresidential buildings will see a modest 4% increase in 2024, after increasing by more than 20% last year according to The American Institute of Architects’ latest Consensus Construction Forecast. The pace will slow to just over 1% growth in 2025, a marked difference from the strong performance in 2023.
Adaptive Reuse | Jan 23, 2024
Adaptive reuse report shows 55K impact of office-to-residential conversions
The latest RentCafe annual Adaptive Reuse report shows that there are 55,300 office-to-residential units in the pipeline as of 2024—four times as much compared to 2021.
Giants 400 | Jan 23, 2024
Top 70 Medical Office Building Construction Firms for 2023
PCL Construction Enterprises, Swinerton, Skanska USA, Clark Group, and Hensel Phelps top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest medical office building general contractors and construction management (CM) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Jan 23, 2024
Top 50 Medical Office Building Engineering Firms for 2023
Jacobs, Salas O'Brien, KPFF Consulting Engineers, IMEG, and Kimley-Horn head BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest medical office building engineering and engineering/architecture (EA) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Jan 23, 2024
Top 110 Medical Office Building Architecture Firms for 2023
SmithGroup, CannonDesign, E4H Environments for Health Architecture, and Perkins Eastman top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest medical office building architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report.
Office Buildings | Jan 19, 2024
How to strengthen office design as employees return to work
Adam James, AIA, Senior Architect, Design Collaborative, shares office design tips for the increasingly dynamic workplace.
Adaptive Reuse | Jan 18, 2024
Coca-Cola packaging warehouse transformed into mixed-use complex
The 250,000-sf structure is located along a now defunct railroad line that forms the footprint for the city’s multi-phase Beltline pedestrian/bike path that will eventually loop around the city.
Sponsored | BD+C University Course | Jan 17, 2024
Waterproofing deep foundations for new construction
This continuing education course, by Walter P Moore's Amos Chan, P.E., BECxP, CxA+BE, covers design considerations for below-grade waterproofing for new construction, the types of below-grade systems available, and specific concerns associated with waterproofing deep foundations.
Biophilic Design | Jan 16, 2024
New supertall Manhattan tower features wraparound green terraces
At 66 stories and 1,031.5 ft high, The Spiral is BIG’s first supertall building and first commercial high-rise in New York.
Sustainability | Jan 10, 2024
New passive house partnership allows lower cost financing for developers
The new partnership between PACE Equity and Phius allows commercial passive house projects to be automatically eligible for CIRRUS Low Carbon financing.