Googleplex

Last updated

Googleplex
Google Campus, Mountain View, CA.jpg
Aerial view of the main Google Campus in Mountain View, CA.
Googleplex
BuiltJuly 2004;19 years ago (2004-07)
Location Mountain View, California, United States
Coordinates 37°25′19″N122°05′02″W / 37.422°N 122.084°W / 37.422; -122.084
Address1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. It is located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California.

Contents

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 portmanteau of Google and complex (meaning a complex of buildings) and a reference to googolplex , the name given to the large number 1010100, or 10 googol .

Facilities and history

The south side of the Googleplex was visible c. 2006, and was blocked one year later by a new line of shade trees. Googleplexsouthsidesecondangle.jpg
The south side of the Googleplex was visible c. 2006, and was blocked one year later by a new line of shade trees.
Former entrance to the lobby of Building 40 Googleplexlobby-adjusted.jpg
Former entrance to the lobby of Building 40

The original campus

SGI campus

The site was previously occupied by Silicon Graphics (SGI). The office space and corporate campus is located within a larger 26-acre (11-hectare) site that contains Charleston Park, a 5-acre (2-hectare) public park; improved access to Permanente Creek; and public roads that connect the corporate site to Shoreline Park and the Bay Trail. The project, launched in 1994, was built on the site of one of the few working farms in the area and was city owned at the time (identified as "Farmer's Field" in the planning documents). [1] [2] It was a creative collaboration between SGI, StUDIOS Architecture, SWA Group, and the Planning and Community Development Agency of the City of Mountain View, California.[ citation needed ] The objective was to develop in complementary fashion the privately owned corporate headquarters and adjoining public greenspace. Key design decisions placed parking for nearly 2000 cars underground, enabling SWA to integrate the two open spaces with water features, shallow pools, fountains, pathways, and plazas. The project was completed in 1997. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) noted that the SGI project was a significant departure from typical corporate campuses and which challenged conventional thinking about private and public space, and awarded the project the ASLA Centennial Medallion in 1999. [3]

Architecture was the architect[ clarification needed ] for the original SGI campus and provided both interior architecture and base building design.

Google campus

This Google campus area is down Charleston Road from the Googleplex. Google Campus in Googleplex.jpg
This Google campus area is down Charleston Road from the Googleplex.

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 largest in the United States among corporations. The panels provide the power for 30% of the peak electricity demand in their solar-powered buildings. [9] Four 100kW Bloom Energy Servers were shipped to Google in July 2008, as the first customer of Bloom Energy. [10] [11]

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

Google buildings are near Shoreline Park. Google Building CL2 from CL5 nearby Shoreline Park.jpg
Google buildings are near Shoreline Park.
Googleplex courtyard Googleplex central courtyard.jpg
Googleplex courtyard

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 Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels in North Bayshore. [18] The site, however, was granted to LinkedIn by the city councilors and the Google project was revised in 2016, with 3 buildings to be built on 2 different sites east of Googleplex in Mountain View: one immediately next to Googleplex, and the two smaller ones a few blocks away. [19]

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

This restaurant is at Googleplex. Googleplex restaurant.jpg
This restaurant is at Googleplex.
Bicycles are used by employees at Googleplex. Google Bicycle.JPG
Bicycles are used by employees at Googleplex.

The Googleplex is located between Charleston Road, Amphitheatre Parkway, and Shoreline Boulevard in north Mountain View, California, close to the Shoreline Park wetlands. Employees living in San Francisco, the East Bay, or South Bay may take a free Wi-Fi-enabled Google shuttle to and from work. The shuttles are powered by a fuel blend of 95% petroleum diesel and 5% biodiesel and have the latest emissions reduction technology. [22] [23]

To the north lies the Shoreline Amphitheatre and Intuit, and to the south lies Microsoft's Silicon Valley research complex, the Computer History Museum, and Century Theatres. Moffett Field is nearby to the east.

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]

The Googleplex is featured in the 2013 film The Internship , with the Georgia Tech campus standing in as a double, because Google disallows filming on the campus grounds for privacy reasons. [27] It was the inspiration for the fictional Hooli headquarters in the HBO TV series Silicon Valley . [28]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Graphics</span> 1981–2009 American computing company

Silicon Graphics, Inc. was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and software. Founded in Mountain View, California in November 1981 by James Clark, its initial market was 3D graphics computer workstations, but its products, strategies and market positions developed significantly over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ames Research Center</span> Research center operated by NASA

The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laboratory. That agency was dissolved and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on October 1, 1958. NASA Ames is named in honor of Joseph Sweetman Ames, a physicist and one of the founding members of NACA. At last estimate NASA Ames had over US$3 billion in capital equipment, 2,300 research personnel and a US$860 million annual budget.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain View, California</span> City in California, United States

Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376 as of the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moffett Federal Airfield</span> Joint civil-military airport in California

Moffett Federal Airfield, also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, United States, between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale. On November 10, 2014, NASA announced that it would be leasing 1,000 acres (400 ha) of the airfield property to Google for 60 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Steel Tower</span> Skyscraper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The U.S. Steel Tower, also known as the Steel Building, UPMC Building, or USX Tower (1988–2001), is a 64-story skyscraper at 600 Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The interior has 2,300,000 sq ft (210,000 m2) of leasable space. At 256.3 m (841 ft) tall, it is the tallest building in Pittsburgh. It held its opening dedication on September 30, 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watergate complex</span> United States historic place

The Watergate complex is a group of six buildings in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. Covering a total of 10 acres just north of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the buildings include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alza</span> Former American pharmaceutical and medical systems company

Alza Corporation was an American pharmaceutical and medical systems company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google</span> American multinational technology company

Google LLC is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence (AI). It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" and as one of the world's most valuable brands due to its market dominance, data collection, and technological advantages in the field of AI. Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc. is one of the five Big Tech companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Heatherwick</span> English designer and architect (born 1970)

Thomas Alexander Heatherwick, is an English designer and the founder of London-based design practice Heatherwick Studio. He works with a team of more than 200 architects, designers and entrepreneurs from his studio in King's Cross, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kai-Fu Lee</span> Taiwanese computer scientist, businessman, and writer

Kai-Fu Lee is a Taiwanese businessman, computer scientist, investor, and writer. He is currently based in Beijing, China.

Google was officially launched in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to market Google Search, which has become the most used web-based search engine. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students at Stanford University in California, developed a search algorithm first (1996) known as "BackRub", with the help of Scott Hassan and Alan Steremberg. The search engine soon proved successful and the expanding company moved several times, finally settling at Mountain View in 2003. This marked a phase of rapid growth, with the company making its initial public offering in 2004 and quickly becoming one of the world's largest media companies. The company launched Google News in 2002, Gmail in 2004, Google Maps in 2005, Google Chrome in 2008, and the social network known as Google+ in 2011, in addition to many other products. In 2015, Google became the main subsidiary of the holding company Alphabet Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Campus Martius</span> Building in downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States

One Campus Martius is a building located in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It began construction in 2000 and was finished in 2003. It has seventeen floors in total, fifteen above-ground, and two below-ground, and has 1,088,000 square feet (100,000 m2) of office space. The high-rise was built as an office building with a restaurant, retail units, space for Compuware and a fitness center, as well as an atrium. The building now has Rocket Mortgage, Microsoft, Meridian Health, Plante Moran and Compuware as its major tenants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RechargeIT</span> Initiative within Google.org

RechargeIT is one of five initiatives within Google.org, the charitable arm of Google, created with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use, and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles. Google.org's official RechargeIT blog has not been updated since 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hangar One (Moffett Federal Airfield)</span> United States historic place

Hangar One is one of the world's largest freestanding structures, covering 8 acres at Moffett Field near Mountain View, California in the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASA Research Park</span> Research park near San Jose, California

NASA Research Park, situated near San Jose, California, operates as a research facility under the auspices of NASA. It is focused on fostering collaboration among government entities, academic institutions, industries, and nonprofit organizations. It was established in the fall of 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacker Dojo</span> Community center and hackerspace in Santa Clara, California, United States

Hacker Dojo is a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) community center and hackerspace that is based in Mountain View, California. Predominantly an open working space for software projects, the Dojo hosts technology classes for biology, computer hardware, and manufacturing events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Park</span> Headquarters of Apple Inc. in Cupertino, California, US

Apple Park, also known as Apple Campus 2, is the corporate headquarters of Apple Inc., located in Cupertino, California, United States. It was opened to employees in April 2017, while construction was still underway, and superseded Apple Campus as the company's corporate headquarters, which opened in 1993.

As the coalition of Bay Areas counties predicted when it lobbied for the creation of Moffett Federal Airfield in the late 1920s, the base's research program and facilities catalyzed the development of numerous private technology and aerospace corporations, among them Lockheed Martin and the Hiller Aircraft Corporation.

Mayfield Mall was a shopping mall in Mountain View, California, United States. Operational from 1966 to 1984, it was the first air-conditioned, enclosed shopping mall in Northern California, though it has been an office complex since the 1980s. In 2013, Google rented the entire 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) property and ultimately purchased it in 2016 for $225 million and is known as the company's Building RLS1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. John's Terminal</span> Building in Manhattan, New York

St. John's Terminal, also known as 550 Washington Street, is a building on Washington Street in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Edward A. Doughtery, it was built in 1934 by the New York Central Railroad as a terminus of the High Line, an elevated freight line along Manhattan's West Side used for transporting manufacturing-related goods. The terminal could accommodate 227 train cars. The three floors, measuring 205,000 square feet (19,000 m2) each, were the largest in New York City at the time of their construction.

References

  1. ↑ Perry, Nicholas (2006). Mountain View, CA - Nicholas Perry - Google Books. Arcadia. ISBN   9780738531366. Archived from the original on May 15, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Error". Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Medallion Sites" (PDF). American Society of Landscape Architects. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ "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.
  10. ↑ "NASA Technology Comes to Earth | Bloom Energy". Archived from the original on February 27, 2010. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Bloom Energy Revealed on 60 Minutes! : Greentech Media". Archived from the original on February 25, 2010. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
  12. ↑ "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.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ "Error". Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
  17. 1 2 "Form 10-K". Sec.gov. Archived from the original on May 8, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ 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.
  20. ↑ Li, Abner (September 7, 2023). "'Google Visitor Experience' opening in Mountain View with Store, cafe, and more". 9to5Google . Archived from the original on September 8, 2023. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  21. ↑ 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.
  22. ↑ 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.
  23. ↑ "Campus operations -- A closer look". Google, Inc. Archived from the original on June 25, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ "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.
  26. ↑ Stone, Brad (May 22, 2013). "Inside Google's Secret Lab". Businessweek. Archived from the original on May 23, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
  27. ↑ 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.
  28. ↑ 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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.