Googleplex
Googleplex | |
---|---|
Built | July 2004 |
Location | Mountain View, California, United States |
Coordinates | 37°25′19″N 122°05′02″W / 37.422°N 122.084°W |
Address | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 |
The Googleplex is the
The original complex, with 2 million square feet (190,000 square meters) of office space, is the company's second largest square footage assemblage of Google buildings, after Google's 111 Eighth Avenue building in New York City, which the company bought in 2010.
"Googleplex" is a
Facilities and history
The original campus
SGI campus
The site was previously occupied by
Architecture was the architect[clarification needed] for the original SGI campus and provided both interior architecture and base building design.
Google campus
The former SGI facilities were leased by Google beginning in 2003.[4] A redesign of the interiors was completed by Clive Wilkinson Architects in 2005. In June 2006, Google purchased some of Silicon Graphics's properties, including the Googleplex, for $319 million.[5][6]
Because the buildings are of relatively low height, the complex sprawls out over a large area of land. The interior of the headquarters is furnished with items like shade lamps and giant rubber balls and the lobby contains a piano and a projection of current live Google search queries. Facilities include free laundry rooms (Buildings 40, 42 & CL3), two small swimming pools, multiple sand volleyball courts, a bowling alley, massage rooms, organic gardens, and eighteen cafeterias with diverse menus. Google installed replicas of SpaceShipOne and a dinosaur skeleton.[7][8]
Since 2017, solar panels cover the rooftops of eight buildings and two solar carports, capable of producing 1.6 megawatts of electricity. At the time of installation, Google believed it to be the
The Android lawn statues were outside of Building 44 on Charleston Road, and were relocated on the Google campus at 1981 Landings Drive. They include a giant green statue of the Android logo and additional statues to represent all the versions of the Android operating system.
Bay View addition
In 2013, construction began on a new 1.1-million-square-foot (100,000-square-meter) campus dubbed "Bay View", adjoining the original campus on 42 acres (17 ha) leased from the NASA Ames Research Center and overlooking San Francisco Bay at Moffett Federal Airfield. The estimated cost of the project was $120 million with a target opening date of 2015.[12][13][14]
NBBJ was the architect and this was the first time Google has designed its own buildings.[15]
The addition is off the northeast corner of the complex, by the Stevens Creek Nature Study Area and Shoreline Park. Before announcing the construction, Google, through its internal real estate firm, Planetary Ventures, sought permission from the City of Mountain View to build bridges over the adjacent Stevens Creek.[16] Google's 2012 year-end annual report noted it can develop only 7 acres (2.8 ha) of the 42-acre (17-hectare) site.[17]
Google planned in 2015 a 60-acre (24-hectare) addition designed by
Google Visitor Experience
In September 2023, Google announced the Google Visitor Experience, a visitor center next to the Googleplex which occupies the building formerly known as Charleston East, and now known as Gradient Canopy. The visitor's center includes a Google Store, a public plaza, a café, and public art, and opened on October 12, 2023.[20]
Location
The Googleplex is located between Charleston Road, Amphitheatre Parkway, and Shoreline Boulevard in north
To the north lies the
Other Google Mountain View locations
Google in its 2012-year-end annual report said it had 3.5 million square feet of office space in Mountain View.[17]
Google has another large campus in Mountain View dubbed "The Quad" at 399 N Whisman Road about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the Googleplex.[24]
In 2013, Google leased the entire Mayfield Mall, an enclosed shopping mall that last operated in 1984 and was leased by Hewlett-Packard from 1986 to 2002.[25]
The semi-secret Google X Lab, which is the development lab for items such as Google Glass, is located in "ordinary two-story red-brick buildings" about 1⁄2 mile (800 meters) from the Googleplex. It has a "burbling fountain out front and rows of company-issued bikes, which employees use to shuttle to the main campus."[26]
In popular culture
The Googleplex is featured in the 2013 film
References
- ISBN 9780738531366. Archivedfrom the original on May 15, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- ^ "Error". Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
- ^ "Medallion Sites" (PDF). American Society of Landscape Architects. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
- ^ Olsen, Stefanie (July 13, 2003). "Google's movin' on up with Sujeet Kumar and Manohar Patti". CNET News.com. CNET Networks, Inc. Archived from the original on February 5, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2007.
- ^ Mills, Elinor (January 19, 2006). "Google buying its Mountain View, Calif., property". CNET News.com. CNET Networks, Inc. Archived from the original on July 6, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2007.
- ^ Conrad, Katherine (June 14, 2006). "Google to purchase Mountain View buildings". San Jose Mercury News. AccessMyLibrary. Archived from the original on January 12, 2009. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
- ^ Weinberg, Nathan (November 8, 2007). "Yes, Google Has The Dinosaur". google.blognewschannel.com. Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- ^ Mohney, Chris (February 6, 2007). "25 things to see at the Googleplex before you die". Valleywag. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on September 25, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2009.
- ^ "Reducing our Footprint". Archived from the original on November 20, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2010.
In Mountain View, CA, for example, we currently have a 1.6-megawatt solar power system that generates 30% of the peak power necessary to fuel the buildings on which they are located.
- ^ "NASA Technology Comes to Earth | Bloom Energy". Archived from the original on February 27, 2010. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
- ^ "Bloom Energy Revealed on 60 Minutes! : Greentech Media". Archived from the original on February 25, 2010. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
- ^ "Google announce lease at Ames Research Center" (PDF). www.nasa.gov. NASA. June 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- ^ Letzing, John (February 22, 2013). "Google Starting Construction on New Campus - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- ^ Goldberger, Paul (February 22, 2013). "Exclusive Preview: Google's New Built-from-Scratch Googleplex". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- ^ Russell, James S. (April 24, 2013). "Google's New Campus Has Light, Fresh Air, Low Power Use". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on May 31, 2013. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- ^ "Error". Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
- ^ a b "Form 10-K". Sec.gov. Archived from the original on May 8, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
- ^ Stone, Brad (May 7, 2015). "Big and Weird: The Architectural Genius of Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on November 16, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
- ^ Cogley, Bridget (August 27, 2019). "Roof completes on Heatherwick and BIG's Google HQ". dezeen. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
- 9to5Google. Archivedfrom the original on September 8, 2023. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
- ^ Kelly, Caitlin (April 28, 2012). "Google Course Asks Employees to Take a Deep Breath". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 18, 2017. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
- ^ Spivack, Cari (September 13, 2004). "Worth the drive". Official Google Blog. Google, Inc. Archived from the original on November 13, 2006. Retrieved January 4, 2007.
- ^ "Campus operations -- A closer look". Google, Inc. Archived from the original on June 25, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
- ^ O'Dell, Jolie (May 17, 2011). "Google To Open New Campus in Mountain View". Mashable.com. Archived from the original on July 23, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
- ^ "Google to Rent Former Mall in Largest Silicon Valley Deal". Bloomberg. September 11, 2013. Archived from the original on September 14, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
- ^ Stone, Brad (May 22, 2013). "Inside Google's Secret Lab". Businessweek. Archived from the original on May 23, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
- ^ Jessica Guynn and Dawn C. Chmielewski (May 25, 2013). "The Internship, now starring ... Google". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 17, 2015. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
- ^ Donato-Weinstein, Nathan (April 17, 2014). "How HBO captured the look of 'Silicon Valley' tech office spaces". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Archived from the original on April 13, 2015. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
External links
- Life in the Googleplex 2006 Photo Essay from Time magazine
- Googleplex East: Inside Google's New York City Headquarters Archived February 19, 2007, at the Information Week
- A Video Tour of Googleplex on YouTube
- Biking around Googleplex on Kinomap
- Andrew Norman Wilson's Viral Video "Workers Leaving the Googleplex"