Google submits updated plans for Bjarke Ingels-designed CA campus

Dive Brief:

Tech giant Google has submitted an updated set of plans to the city of Mountain View, CA, for a proposed 600,000-square-foot, Bjarke Ingels Group-designed office complex on a 19-acre parcel near its existing headquarters, according to Engadget.
The latest design still features the "futuristic circus tent" aesthetic unveiled almost a year ago and also retains the structure's ability to regulate temperature, air quality and sound within the building.
Mountain View rejected the company's original expansion plan in 2015, which was to add on to its existing campus. Google's design hinged on being able to utilize an adjacent 2-million-square-foot parcel of land, but the city council allocated almost three-quarters of it to accommodate LinkedIn's growth plans instead.

Dive Insight:.

Google's original plan included wetland restoration, bike paths, parks and a 5,000-unit housing complex. The company has since scaled down that vision to a development that the smaller "Charleston East" site can accommodate. When it is complete, the new facility will be home to approximately 3,000 Google employees.

Google said it is specifically incorporating copious amounts of park-like green space, as well as other features like food stalls, in order to attract the public and make it an integral part of the community. The company has also placed its employee offices at the second-story level so that the public activity will not be a distraction.

Another industry giant, Apple, is getting ready to start the move into its new $5 billion, 175-acre headquarters in Cupertino, CA, approximately two years after its originally scheduled completion. The 2.8-million-square-foot, ring-shaped office, dubbed the "spaceship" because of its design, will open its doors to 12,000 employees in April. The construction delays were largely chalked up to the high level of detail paid to the project by the Apple team. According to the company, it carried out the construction and design of its new headquarters with as much scrupulous attention to detail as it would the iPhone.

Apple's campus also includes a large amount of green space — 7,000 trees and a 30-acre park in the building's core — although it is not for public use like Google's new development. The building also has incorporated the largest pieces of curved glass in the world and contains a $160 million auditorium, a $70 million wellness center and a 60,000-square-foot cafeteria. Apple will also utilize solar energy and biofuels as its power source and plans to use a natural ventilation system instead of a traditional HVAC system for 75% of the year.