Googleplex
 | |
| Built | July 2004 |
|---|---|
| Location | Mountain View, California, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 37°25′19″N 122°05′02″W / 37.422°N 122.084°W |
| Address | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 |
Googleplex is the head office of Google, Inc. The office is located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, United States, near San Jose. Its name is based off of the number Googolplex.
The original complex has 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2) of office space. It is the company's second largest building. The Bay View addition to the building was added in 2015. This made it part of the biggest collection of Google buildings. It has 3,100,000 square feet (290,000 m2) of space.[1]
Facilities and history
[change | change source]Original campus
[change | change source]SGI Campus
[change | change source]The place was owned by Silicon Graphics in the past. The office space and corporate campus is in a bigger 26-acre (110,000 m2) site. The place also includes Charleston Park and better connection to Permanente Creek, as well as roads that connect to Shoreline Park and the Bay Trail. The project was started in 1994. It was built on the site of one of the working farms in the area.The city owned it at the time.[2][3]
Google Campus
[change | change source]Google got the facilities in early 2003.[4] Clive Wilkinson Architects redesigned the inside in 2005. Google bought some of Silicon Graphics' properties in June 2006 for $319 million.[5][6]
The buildings are not tall, but the complex covers a large area of land. The inside of the headquarters has items like shade lamps and giant rubber balls for decoration. The lobby has a piano and a projection of current live Google searches. There are also facilities like free laundry rooms, two small swimming pools, volleyball courts, and eighteen cafeterias with different menus. Google has also put in models of SpaceShipOne and a dinosaur skeleton.[7][8]
Since 2007 the place has a set of solar panels covering the roofs of eight buildings and two solar carports. These can produce 1.6 megawatts of electricity. 30% of the peak electricity demand comes from the panels in their solar-powered buildings.[9]
Bay view addition
[change | change source]In 2013 construction started on a new 1.1 million square foot headquarters campus called "Bay View". This was next to the original campus on 42 acres (170,000 m2) leased from NASA. The estimated cost of the project is $120 million with a target opening date of 2015.[10][11][12][13]
NBBJ is the architect of the addition. This is also the first time Google has designed its own buildings.[14]
The addition is close to northeast corner of the complex. Google tried to get permission from the city to build bridges over Stevens Creek before announcing its construction.[15] Google's 2012 year-end annual report says that it can expand only 7 acres (28,000 m2) of the 42-acre (170,000 m2) site.[16]
In popular culture
[change | change source]The Googleplex was featured in the 2013 film The Internship, with the Georgia Tech campus standing in as a double.[17] It was also the inspiration for the fictional Hooli headquarters in the HBO TV series Silicon Valley.[18]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Strickland, Jonathan (2008-08-04). "HowStuffWorks "Introduction to How the Googleplex Works"". Howstuffworks.com. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
- ↑ Perry, Nicholas (2006). Mountain View. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-3136-6. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
- ↑ "Error". laserfiche.mountainview.gov.
- ↑ Olsen, Stefanie (2003-07-13). "Google's movin' on up with Sujeet Kumar and Manohar Patti". CNET News.com. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
- ↑ Mills, Elinor (2006-06-14). "Google buying its Mountain View, Calif., property". CNET News.com. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved 2007-01-04.[permanent dead link]
- ↑ Conrad, Katherine (June 14, 2006). "Google to purchase Mountain View buildings". San Jose Mercury News. AccessMyLibrary. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
- ↑ Weinberg, Nathan (2007-11-08). "Yes, Google Has The Dinosaur". google.blognewschannel.com. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
- ↑ Mohney, Chris (2007-02-06). "25 things to see at the Googleplex before you die". Valleywag. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on 2009-09-25. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
- ↑ "Reducing our Footprint". Google Inc. Retrieved 2010-09-30.
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.
- ↑ "Google announce lease at Ames Research Center" (PDF). www.nasa.gov. NASA. June 2008. Retrieved 2015-12-28.
- ↑ Letzing, John (2013-02-22). "Google Starting Construction on New Campus - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
- ↑ Goldberger, Paul. "Exclusive Preview: Google's New Built-from-Scratch Googleplex". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
- ↑ "Googleplex: Google to build $120m futuristic HQ with a garden on the roof | Mail Online". London: Dailymail.co.uk. 2013-02-25. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
- ↑ Russell, James S. (2013-04-24). "Google's New Campus Has Light, Fresh Air, Low Power Use". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
- ↑ "Error". laserfiche.mountainview.gov.
- ↑ "Form 10-K". Sec.gov. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
- ↑ Jessica Guynn and Dawn C. Chmielewski (2013-05-25). "The Internship, now starring ... Google". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
- ↑ Donato-Weinstein, Nathan (2014-04-17). "How HBO captured the look of 'Silicon Valley' tech office spaces". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 2015-04-05.