The site was previously occupied by Silicon Graphics. The office space and corporate campus is located within a larger site that contains Charleston Park, a 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. It was a creative collaboration between SGI, STUDIOS Architecture, SWA Group, 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, and plazas. The project was completed in 1997. The ASLA noted that the SGI project was a significant departure from typical corporate campuses, challenging conventional thinking about private and public space and awarded the project the ASLA Centennial Medallion in 1999. STUDIOS Architecture was the architect 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. 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 free laundry rooms, 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. The Android lawn statues, are now located on the Google campus at 1981 Landings Drive, and include a giant green statue of the Android logo and additional statues to represent all the versions of the Android operating system.
In 2013 construction began on a new campus dubbed "Bay View", adjoining the original campus on 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. NBBJ is the architect and this is the first time Google has designed its own buildings rather than moving into buildings occupied by previous businesses. The addition is off the northeast corner of the complex, by the Stevens Creek Nature Study Area/Shoreline Park. Before announcing the construction, Google, through its in-house real estate firm, Planetary Ventures, sought permission from the city of Mountain View to build bridges over the adjacent Stevens Creek. Google's 2012 year-end annual report noted it can develop only of the site. Google plans a addition designed by Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels in North Bayshore.
Google in its 2012-year-end annual report said it had 3.5 million square feet of office space in Mountain View. Google has another large campus in Mountain View dubbed "The Quad" at 399 N Whisman Road about from the Googleplex. 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. used by employees on Googleplex In addition, the 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 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."
In popular culture
The Googleplex was featured in the 2013 film The Internship, with the Georgia Tech campus standing in as a double. It was also the inspiration for the fictional Hooli headquarters in the HBO TV series Silicon Valley.
