Googleplex - Facilities and History

Facilities and History

The four core buildings, totaling 47,038 square meters (506,310 sq ft), were built for and originally occupied by Silicon Graphics (SGI). The office space and corporate campus is located within a larger 26-acre (110,000 m2) site that contains Charleston Park, a 5-acre (20,000 m2) 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 to reclaim a former industrial brownfield site, was a creative collaboration between SGI, SWA Group of San Francisco, Sausalito, and the Planning and Community Development Agency of the City of Mountain View. 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, plazas, and a gigantic statue of a dinosaur. The project was completed in 1997. The ASLA noted in 1999 that the SGI project was a significant departure from typical corporate campuses, challenging conventional thinking about private and public space.

STUDIOS Architecture was the executive architect for the original SGI campus, and provided both interior architecture and base building design.

The former SGI facilities were leased by Google beginning in 2003. A redesign of the interiors was completed by Clive Wilkinson Architects in 2005. In June 2006, Google purchased some of Silicon Graphics' properties, including the Googleplex, for $319 million.

Since 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. The lobby contains a piano and a projection of current live Google search queries. Facilities include a gym (Building 40), free laundry rooms (Buildings 40, 42 & CL3), two small swimming pools, multiple sand volleyball courts, and eighteen cafeterias with diverse menus. Google has also installed replicas of SpaceShipOne and a dinosaur skeleton.

Since 2007 the site has featured a series of solar panels covering the rooftops of eight buildings and two solar carports, and 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 needed for 30% of the peak electricity demand in their solar-powered buildings.

Four 100kW Bloom Energy Servers were shipped to Google in July 2008, making Google the first customer of Bloom Energy.

There is a giant green statue of the Android logo outside of Building 44 (1635 Charleston Road) on the Google campus (It can be seen using Google Maps Satellite on 45° mode). 37°25′13″N 122°05′02″W / 37.420269°N 122.083949°W / 37.420269; -122.083949

Not officially encompassed in the Googleplex, but still owned by Google is the secret Google X Lab.