Rooftops covered in canopy-style solar panels and interiors bathed in sunlight: Google has put a lot of personal work into its expansive new offices in Silicon Valley.
AFP visited Google’s 1.1 million square foot (100,000 square meter) campus on Monday as the tech giant welcomed its employees back after the pandemic-era telecommuting.
“Fortunately, many of the things we’ve already planned somehow prepared us for success with Covid,” said Michelle Kaufmann, Google’s director of development for built environments.
“Thank God, otherwise we would have built these buildings and we would have to switch,” she added.
The campus includes 42 acres (17 hectares) of leased land adjacent to NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, near the company’s headquarters.
It includes an events center and small apartments that remote employees can use when they are away on business.
Ventilation systems in the buildings use 100 percent outside air, a plus against the spread of Covid-19.
– ‘Don’t go empty’ –
The ground floor houses cafes, fitness centers, meeting rooms, social spaces, and playful touches like multicolored stationary bikes that people can pedal while chatting, with the ability to charge devices with the energy they generate.
The upper floors of the two-story buildings house desks, with furniture and fixtures that can be easily reconfigured to suit the teams.
Workspaces are divided into “neighborhoods” with homey touches and even “courtyards” with cozy furniture.
“The ground floor is really like a market, so it’s more lively.” said merchant.
“Upstairs is more of the quiet room where the teams really do a lot of their work,” she added.
The Bay View campus is expected to accommodate 4,500 workers, with move-in expected in the coming weeks.
Solar panels provide electricity, geothermal systems help with heating and cooling, and water collection and recycling systems result in a surplus that is used to restore the wetlands on the property.
Going forward, Google expects a norm of employees typically working from the office about three days a week, with that cadence changing depending on project phase and, of course, the pace of the pandemic.
“I don’t think any of our buildings are empty, that’s not a problem that worries us,” said Kaufmann.
“We’re more worried about whether we’ll have enough space just because the company is still growing,” she added.
Google has more than 45,000 employees in Silicon Valley.
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