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
| Aug 11, 2010
AAMA leads development of BIM standard for fenestration products
The American Architectural Manufacturers Association’s newly formed BIM Task Group met during the AAMA National Fall Conference to discuss the need for an BIM standard for nonresidential fenestration products.
| Aug 11, 2010
Call for entries: Building enclosure design awards
The Boston Society of Architects and the Boston chapter of the Building Enclosure Council (BEC-Boston) have announced a High Performance Building award that will assess building enclosure innovation through the demonstrated design, construction, and operation of the building enclosure.
| Aug 11, 2010
Portland Cement Association offers blast resistant design guide for reinforced concrete structures
Developed for designers and engineers, "Blast Resistant Design Guide for Reinforced Concrete Structures" provides a practical treatment of the design of cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures to resist the effects of blast loads. It explains the principles of blast-resistant design, and how to determine the kind and degree of resistance a structure needs as well as how to specify the required materials and details.
| Aug 11, 2010
Manhattan's Pier 57 to be transformed into cultural center, small business incubator, and public park as part of $210 million redevelopment plan
LOT-EK, Beyer Blinder Belle, and West 8 have been selected as the design team for Hudson River Park’s Pier 57 at 15th Street and the Hudson River as part of the development group led by New York-based real estate developer YoungWoo & Associates. The 375,000 square foot vacant, former passenger ship terminal will be transformed into a cultural center, small business incubator, and public park, including a rooftop venue for the Tribeca Film Festival.
| Aug 11, 2010
New website highlights government tax incentives for large commercial buildings
Energy Retrofit Group (ERG), the subsidiary of 40-year-old, award-winning Adache Group Architects, Inc., has announced the creation of their new energy conservation web site: www.energy-rg.com.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gensler, HOK, HDR among the nation's leading reconstruction design firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 100 Reconstruction Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Gensler, Arup, HOK among the largest office sector design firms
A ranking of the Top 100 Office Design firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Goettsch Partners wins design competition for Soochow Securities HQ in China
Goettsch Partners (GP) has been selected as the winning firm in the competition to design the Soochow Securities Headquarters, the new office and stock exchange building for Soochow Securities Co. Ltd. The 21-story, 441,300-square-foot project includes 344,400 square feet of office space, an 86,100-square-foot stock exchange, meeting rooms, classrooms, a cafeteria, and underground parking for 400 cars and 800 bicycles.
| Aug 11, 2010
ASHRAE introduces building energy label prototype
Most of us know the fuel efficiency of our cars, but what about our buildings? ASHRAE is working to change that, moving one step closer today to introducing its building energy labeling program with release of a prototype label at its 2009 Annual Conference in Louisville, Ky.
