Search Engine Land » Google: Offices

Google Takes Top Floor In Silicon Roundabout & Builds Three Data Centers In Asia

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:07:40 +0000

Google boosts London’s Silicon Roundabout from BBC News reports Google has signed a ten year deal to lease the entire top floor of the seven floor building in what is known as the Silicon Roundabout.

The Silicon Roundabout currently has about 300 firms in the area and it is located in the Old Street area in the UK on Bonhill Street. Google is leasing the space to provide “assistance to new technology companies” according to BBC News. A Google spokesperson said they will host “a range of activities, such as speaker series, hackathons, training workshops and product demonstrations” as well as provide space for tech startup companies.

Google to Build Three Data Centers in Asia from the Wall Street Journal reports Google is building data centers in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. They are expected to invest over $200 million and would hire up to 20 new employees at the Hong Kong and Taiwan locations.

These will be Google’s first “fully owned data centers in the Asia-Pacific region,” according to the Wall Street Journal. It will also take about two years to get the data centers up and running after the construction begins.

Google May Be Outgrowing Their Home In Mountain View

Barry Schwartz — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:51:57 +0000

Google’s Growth Unsettles Mountain View by the Wall Street Journal reports on the tension growing between Google and the city they have grown up in, Mountain View.

As Google continues to grow and require more space, Mountain View needs to expand with them. City council member Laura Macias told the Wall Street Journal “we may not develop as much as Google wants.”

Mountain View is a region that has lots of greener, wildlife and is not city-like. Google is interested in building bridges, recreation facilities, corporate housing and more offices. This will result in high density populations and lead to a different culture and life-style in the region, Several city council members in Mountain View are not happy about it.

A Google spokesman told the Wall Street Journal: “In the 12 years that Mountain View has been our home, we’ve worked with the city to give back to the community. We look forward to continuing this relationship well into the future.”

Google Continues Expansion, Leases Additional 600,000 SQ Feet In Mountain View

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:21:00 +0000

Mercury News reports Google entered an agreement to lease an additional campus with nine building and up to 630,000 additional square feet of space in Mountain View. The new building is right across Highway 101.

“We had two other major companies interested in our project, and we had been in discussions with them for several months, and then Google came along and was much more intense,” said John Lovewell, partner with Keenan Lovewell Ventures, the owner of “The Quad” campus on Ellis Street. “They were ready to make a commitment — a specific commitment — very quickly, and that’s why we ended up making a deal with them.”

Google recently entered an agreement to buy land nearby to build their own offices from the ground up. The current GooglePlex has about 4.3 million square feet of space and Google continues to buy buildings, acquire land and sign leases to house their growing workforce globally.

Postscript: Forbes reports Google signed a lease on 160,000 square feet of office space at the Central Saint Giles development in London. Google is expected to be paying about $16.8 million per year in rent for this space, that means over a $100 per square foot of space.

Postscript 2: A day later, The Globe and Mail reports Google unveiled their new 34,000-square-foot facility in Kitchener, Ont.’s Tannery district. So as you can see, Google keeps building, leasing and adding new space for their work force all over the world.

Related Stories:

Google To Build New Googleplex From Scratch

Barry Schwartz — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:53:25 +0000

Mercury News reports Google is planning on building their own office building, which can fit up to 600,000 square feet of office space. Google’s current space is pretty much as capacity now and Google is looking to pay the city of Mountain View $30 million to lease 9.4 acres near Shoreline Boulevard, according to Mercury News.

Google has never built their own office buildings from the ground up. They have built data centers, but not office space.

Google hired leading architects firm Ingenhoven Architects, a German based company who is known for building buildings that are green and sustainable.

Google is said to be paying Mountain View top dollar for the land. They currently have about 4.3 million square feet of space in Mountain View, so adding another 600,000 on 9.4 acres does not seem all that much to me. Google is not sharing any additional information on this project, but they did have a spokesperson tell Mercury News:

We’ve asked them to build the most green, sustainable building possible.

Related Stories:

Google To Open Office In Beverly Hills

Barry Schwartz — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:30:30 +0000

The Hollywood Reported reports Google is opening an office in Beverly Hills, California.

Google is opening a 13,465-square-foot office, which will be the space used by Google’s entertainment division. That includes some of the YouTube staff and others involved in that area.

The location is at 331 Foothill Rd, Beverly Hills and the move is expected by the end of the year. The lease deal is for 11-years and valued at $6.3 million.

Google has plans on YouTube to push it’s own original content soon. And Google is working hard on expanding their presence in Hollywood and the entertainment sector.

In other Google investments, Google also invested $5 million in a German solar power plant. Google is very into green power projects and needs a lot of power for all their computing needs.

Related Stories:

Videos Of The First Googleplex

Barry Schwartz — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:29:00 +0000

The Xooglers Blog has been posting videos of the old GooglePlex, old Google office from back in November 1999.

I believe these videos are from the office Google had at 2400 Bayshore, Mountain View. As Alex said, Google started off in Susan Wojcicki’s garage, then moved to 165 University Ave in Palo Alto, then to 2400 Bayshore, Mountain View and now they are at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway.

In any event, here are the videos of Google’s office from November 1999:

Google Buys New York City Office Building For $1.9 Billion

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:44:05 +0000

Google to Buy New York Office Building from the Wall Street Journal reports Google has signed the deal to buy the NYC office building they currently lease for close to $1.9 billion.

This was an expected move by Google, who currently leases about 2 or 3 of the floors of the massive building. The building is well known, previously the home of the Port Authority, with space of about 2.9 million square feet. It fills an entire city block, from Eighth and Ninth avenues from 15th and 16th streets. It has several addresses, commonly 76 Ninth Avenue or 111 Eighth Ave and is one of the largest buildings in New York City.

Google moved into this building as part of their expansion plans in the big Apple back in early 2006. I remember when the office space they had was virtually empty. Last time I visited the offices, it was jammed packed and they needed more space. Google currently leases about 500,000 square feet of this building.

The Wall Street Journal said this is “the biggest [deal] for a single building in the U.S. this year.”

Postscript: On December 22, 2010 Google announced they “closed” on a “deal with the partnership of Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to purchase 111 Eighth Avenue (also known as 76 Ninth Avenue).”

Google May Buy New York Office Building

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:16:08 +0000

Google’s big buy by the New York Post reports Google may shell out $2 billion to buy the New York office building they currently rent a portion of.

The building is well known, previously the home of the Port Authority, with space of about 2.9 million square feet. It fills an entire city block, from Eighth and Ninth avenues from 15th and 16th streets. It has several addresses, commonly 76 Ninth Avenue or 111 Eighth Ave and is one of the largest buildings in New York City.

In January, we reported Google is looking to expand their New York offices from the two or three floors they currently rent in that building. Buying the whole building may solve that problem.

I personally toured the building when they first moved in late 2006. Back in 2006, it looked like a ghost town. Since then, I have been there several more times and every time I go, the office gets stuffier and stuffier.

Conan O’Brien Is At Google Now

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:30:27 +0000

Conan O’Brien, the comedian, tweeted that he is performing at Google today. I scanned through Twitter to find pictures from Googlers of his performance. Here they are:

Here is another.

Google Loves Goats

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:49:14 +0000

For the second year in a row, Google hired goats to mow their lawn. This is Google’s way of reducing their carbon footprint. The 200 goats, according to Google, cost as much as a lawn service to bring in and would benefit the world by eliminating mower emissions, reducing noise pollution, restoring plant species and fertilizing while grazing.

I assume the goats are not just about minimizing Google’s carbon footprint. It is also a nice marketing and PR play for them. Here are some pictures: