The
Googleplex is the
corporate headquartersCorporate headquarters is a term used to describe the entity at the top of a corporation to take full responsibility for the overall success of the corporation, ensures Corporate Governance...
complex of
Google, Inc.Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in
Mountain View-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
,
Santa Clara CountySanta Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...
, California, United States, near
San JoseSan Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. "Googleplex" is a portmanteau of
Google and
complex, and a reference to
googolplex, the name given to the large number 10
10100, or 10
googolA googol is the large number 10100, that is, the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros:The term was coined in 1938 by 9-year-old Milton Sirotta , nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner...
.
The Googleplex is one of the company's 23 U.S. and Canadian locations. Google also maintains 23 European locations, 14 Asia/Pacific locations, 5 Middle East locations, and 3 Latin American locations.
Facilities and history
The four core buildings, totaling 47038 square metres (56,257 sq yd), were built for and originally occupied by Silicon Graphics (SGI). The office space and corporate campus is located within a larger 26 acres (105,218.4 m²) site that contains Charleston Park, a 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) 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 to reclaim a former industrial brownfield, was a creative collaboration between SGI, SWA Group of San Francisco, Sausalito, 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, plazas, and a gigantic statue of a dinosaur. The project was completed in 1997. The
ASLAASLA may refer to:* Academia de Ştiinţe, Literatură şi Arte* American Society of Landscape Architects...
noted in 1999 that the SGI project was a significant departure from typical corporate campuses, challenging conventional thinking about private and public space.
STUDIOS Architecture was the executive architect for the original SGI campus, and provided both interior architecture and base building design.
The former SGI facilities were leased by Google beginning in 2003.A redesign of the interiors was completed by
Clive WilkinsonClive Wilkinson is an architect and interior designer. Acknowledged as a pioneer in workplace design, Wilkinson is best known for designing the Googleplex, the headquarters of Google in Silicon Valley. He has also designed several top global advertising agencies, including JWT in New York City,...
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 amount 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 a gym (Building 40), free laundry rooms (Buildings 40, 42 & CL3), two small swimming pools, multiple sand volleyball courts, and eighteen cafeterias of diverse selection. 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 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 ServerThe Bloom Energy Server is a solid oxide fuel cell made by Bloom Energy, of Sunnyvale, California, that can use a wide variety of inputs to generate electricity on the site where it will be used.It is highly efficient, low cost and has lower polluting emissions...
s were shipped to Google in July 2008, making Google the first customer of Bloom Energy.
There is a giant green statue of the Android logo outside of Building 44 (1635 Charleston Road) on the Google campus (It can be seen using Google Maps Satellite on 45° mode). 37.420269°N 122.083949°W
Not officially encompassed in the Googleplex, but still owned by Google is the top-secret
Google X LabGoogle X Lab, sometimes referred to simply as Google X, is a secret facility run by Google thought to be located somewhere in the Bay Area of Nothern California....
.
Location
The Googleplex is located between Charleston Road, Amphitheatre Parkway, and Shoreline Boulevard in north
Mountain View, California-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
close to the Shoreline Park wetlands. Employees living in San Francisco, the East Bay, or South Bay may take a free wifi-enabled Google shuttle to and from work. The shuttles are powered by a fuel blend of 95% petroleum diesel and 5%
biodieselBiodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
, and have the latest emissions reduction technology.
Neighbors of the Googleplex include
Shoreline AmphitheatreShoreline Amphitheatre is an outdoor amphitheater, in Mountain View, California, USA, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Inside the venue it has a capacity of 22,500, with 6,500 reserved seats and 16,000 general admission on the lawn...
to the north;
IntuitIntuit Inc. is an American software company that develops financial and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants and individuals...
to the northwest and
Century TheatresCentury Theatres is a movie theater chain which operates many multiplexes in the western United States, primarily in California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. In recent years, it has expanded into the inter-mountain states, the Pacific Northwest, Texas, and parts of the Midwest...
, Microsoft Corporation's
Silicon ValleySilicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
research complex, and the
Computer History MuseumThe Computer History Museum is a museum established in 1996 in Mountain View, California, USA. The Museum is dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.-History:The museum's origins...
to the south.
Moffett FieldMoffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale, California, USA. The airport is near the south end of San Francisco Bay, northwest of San Jose. Formerly a United States Navy facility, the former...
lies nearby to the east.
Other uses of the word
"Googleplex" is also part of a title referring to a minor character from the 1979 book
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
by
Douglas AdamsDouglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
, a powerful computer called the "Googleplex Star Thinker".
External links