While Apple is putting the finishing touches to its ‘Spaceship’ campus in Cupertino, Google has unveiled the latest plans for a new ‘flower power’ campus in nearby Mountain View.
The tech giant has shared new renders of its Google Charleston East campus, which highlights a two-story building that boasts a flower petal-like canopy structure on the roof.
The updated plans were a result of Google and LinkedIn swapping locations last July and constructions is expected to last for about 30 months once they are approved by the Mountain View City Council.
Google first announced plans for a new campus in 2015, which was to be integrated with wildlife and sweeping waterway – making a big statement in Silicon Valley.
The design included lush public gardens, looping covered bike ways and futuristic-looking buildings that can be moved about like toy blocks.
The latest renders also seems to be a massive playground with its winding bike paths, patios for lounging and a large portion has been set aside for vegetation – the renders also show people playing in the park and participating in yoga on a bright sunny day.
The building is surrounded by ‘natural space’ and ‘small park areas’ that the tech giant has named ‘Green Loop’, reports 9to5Mac.
There are countless open spaces, including a public plaza and ‘quieter and more intimate spaces for collaboration and private conversation.’
However, the most discussed part of the plans appears to be the massive flower-like canopy that sits on top of the main building.
Not only is the rooftop decorative, but it also regulates indoor climate, air quality and minimizes sound.
Because the campus will also be an attraction, Google employees will be working on the second floor of the building in ‘highly flexible and reconfigurable’ spaces.
According to the application Google had submitted to Mountain View’s local government in 2015, the campus will house not only offices, but also a 72,000 square feet of space for retail shops and amenities, as well as underground parking.
The original plans had a series of ‘canopy-like buildings’ from Heatherwick Studio, a London design firm known for works like the fiery cauldron at the 2012 Olympics, and Bjarke Ingels, a Danish architect known for his innovative designs.-
Google’s futuristic campus is the latest design project in Silicon Valley to come after Apple’s massive ‘spaceship’ campus.
Google said its new design is aimed at ‘rethinking office space.’
‘As we’ve inhabited a variety of workplaces, we’ve learned something about what makes an office space great,’ Google vice president for real estate David Radcliffe said in a blog post from 2015.
Radcliffe said the new campus will ‘lead to a better way of working.’
He added that ‘instead of constructing immoveable concrete buildings, we’ll create lightweight block-like structures which can be moved around easily as we invest in new product areas.’
And it aims ‘to blur the distinction between our buildings and nature,’ added Radcliffe.
However, The New York Times had revealed, when Google first announced the campus, that the project had raised concerns in the once-sleepy community of Mountain View about being overrun by the technology behemoth.
The expansion of the wealthy tech giants in the region has led to increased congestion as well as an explosion in the area’s real estate prices.
Radcliffe said the new Google campus will see it do ‘more with the local community.’
‘We’re adding lots of bike paths and retail opportunities, like restaurants, for local businesses,’ he noted.
‘We also hope to bring new life to the unique local environment, from enhancing burrowing owl habitats to widening creek beds.’
In nearby Cupertino, Apple won approval in 2013 for a shimmering flying-saucer-shaped headquarters after a tax break granted the technology titan was trimmed.
‘Apple Campus 2’ is described as a 21st Century creation designed for research, collaboration, and innovation.
Apple enlisted world-famous architect Norman Foster to transform a 176-acre site dominated by asphalt and old buildings into ‘sustainable, state-of-the-art office, research and development facilities.’
Facebook meanwhile is upgrading its Menlo Park campus at the former headquarters of Sun Microsystems.
Gehry, known for his deconstructive style and buildings that sometimes appear unfinished, also designed the Stata Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris.
Facebook’s new hub has been described as ‘a large, one-room building that somewhat resembles a warehouse.’
It is the firm’s second attempt at a new office, after plans for a Bay View ‘mini city’ were put on hold in 2014.
It would have meant a 1.1 million square foot Googleplex with nine rectangular buildings, horizontally bent, with living roofs surrounded by courtyards and connected by bridges.
Apple also announced last week that its ‘spaceship’, official called ‘Apple park, will begin moving staff inside.
The process of moving more than 12,000 people will take over six months, and construction of the buildings and parklands is scheduled to continue through the summer. Before his death in 2011, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who would have turned 62 this Friday, February 24, set out to create one of the most futuristic buildings ever created.
‘Steve was exhilarated, and inspired, by the California landscape, by its light and its expansiveness,’ said Laurene Powell Jobs.
‘It was his favourite setting for thought. Apple Park captures his spirit uncannily well.’
‘He would have flourished, as the people of Apple surely will, on this luminously designed campus.’
To ‘honour his memory and his enduring influence on Apple and the world’, the theater at Apple Park will be named the Steve Jobs Theater, Apple said.
Opening later this year, the entrance to the 1,000-seat auditorium is a 20-foot-tall glass cylinder, 165 feet in diameter, supporting a metallic carbon-fibre roof.
The Steve Jobs Theater is situated on top of a hill — one of the highest points within Apple Park — overlooking meadows and the main building.
‘Steve’s vision for Apple stretched far beyond his time with us.
‘He intended Apple Park to be the home of innovation for generations to come,’ said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
‘The workspaces and parklands are designed to inspire our team as well as benefit the environment. We’ve achieved one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the world and the campus will run entirely on renewable energy.’
The campus’ ring-shaped, 2.8 million-square-foot main building is clad entirely in the world’s largest panels of curved glass, and the firm’s fanatical attention to detail is seen throughout.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.