After thirteen years as the world's premier Internet Search Engine, Google has finally decided to get its own address. The company has hired a German architecture firm to undertake construction of its own office. With plans to add over 6,000 new employees just in 2011 alone, Google is in massive need of some new space. For over a decade, Google has leased its offices in Northern California, spread out between 65 different buildings in the Mountain View area. That number is more than double what it was in 2005, and the company expects to grow even more in the coming years as it makes dramatic staff increases. According to Mercury News, Google announced this week it plans to build its brand new headquarters on a property in Mountain View, California south of Palo Alto near the Moffett Federal Airfield. The Mountain View City Council approved the deal in late March, and Google is expected to make the $30 million upfront payment in June for a lease that will run for 53 years on half of the 18.6-acre city-owned site. Mountain View and Google had reached an agreement in 2007 to lease the other 9.2 acres, with Google paying an initial rent of $1.1 million a year. The two deals collectively allow Google to develop up to 595,000 square feet of office and research and development space. German firm Ingenhoven Architects, renowned for their large-scale environmentally-friendly projects and unique aesthetics, will reportedly design Google's new structure. Ingenhoven has designed buildings in Europe, Asia and Australia, including a tubular glass and steel structure for the new European Investment Bank headquarters in Luxembourg and a new zero-emission railway station in Stuttgart, Germany, that will require no heating, cooling or mechanical ventilation. "We've asked them to build the most green, sustainable building possible," a spokesman for Google told Mercury News. Google is not sharing any details, but city officials said preliminary plans could be filed later this month, with construction starting as early as 2012.
This New Year began with the news that artificial islands -The World are slowly sinking into the sea. The World consists of 300 islands, with 232 kilometers of coastline and a total area of 55 square kilometers. Things have not gone well for The World from the very moment of its creation; unlike another exclusive development project Palm Jumeirah, The World couldn't attract investments. Today the development of the events surprised everyone! Last week Google announced that it is going to buy those man-made troubled islands and rearrange it into the Google logo. According to Google report, after completion of the project the big "G" in Google, that will be formed from five islands, is going to be used as company's headquarter in Dubai and a staff private resort. The rest of Google- shaped islands will be sold through the auction the highest bidder. Among the reported implicit bidders on the remaining islands are Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio, who had already reserved part of The World. Google is well known for its green and sustainable lifestyle and The Google Islands will be not an exception; they will be equipped with wind turbines, photovoltaic panels and even tidal power in order to maintain self-sufficient and premium life on the islands. Google will also hire top engineers to define the damage that the islands have sustained and reinforce them.
It is known that the appealing interiors add impact of human labor. For the success of employees and the company's benefit it is necessary to create the most comfortable work conditions. A perfect example of how to turn work into pleasure, are offices of technology companies. In IT companies, employees can play at any time. The is no fixed working hours, no matter where and in what way you work, what you do during working hours; you can come at any time, you can leave office and work at home, play and sit in a cafe even all day long. Of course, to work in a such conditions every day is a great joy. All these contribute to the creative and productive work, help to attract new employees from among the most talented people. Below, some examples of some IT company offices where every employee will dream to work. There is a really Russian spirit in the Google's Moscow Office... Designers used well-known Russian folk tales, cartoons and films to create an interior design. You can start the morning in the dining room "Samobranka" (magic tablecloth that serves meals when told so) and taste the Russian blintz or sit in "Hut on chicken legs". Here you can negotiate on "12 chairs", in "Snake Gorynych" (firedrake), or at "Frog-Princess ". Here you can sit under green oak or in the small library "Lukomorie" (curved seashore) on the soft sofa and read book with a cup of hot coffee. In other words- choose your own fairy tale! There is slightly different approach in the Milan's Google office interior design; everything is made perfectly, but without any hint to luxury. Designers from AMA (Albera Monti & Associati) managed to convey the philosophy of Google and at the same time save national features. AMA designers main focus was to provide good natural lighting and a wonderful view from the windows. Like most IT companies, Google's office in Milan includes restaurant, game room, gymnasium, massage room, showers, and much more! In short, there are all conditions for turning the workplace into something more than an ordinary one. Our next example is Yandex Office. Here is the whole list of the attributes for comfortable "living" at work as well. All the prime work conditions are available here, but without sofas... This is done for only one purpose; to make employees go home to sleep. There are many green plants in the office, which watering is provided by automatic irrigation and drainage systems. There are many grass imitations on the walls, where natural plants could not reach. Architects of this office even gave fabulous names for rooms. For example on the seventh floor all rooms for negotiation begins at 7- the Seven Dwarfs, the Seventh Heaven, the Forty-Second Cousin (in Russian this phrase starts with seven). ABBYY employs both programmers and linguists. The room, where staff works with Asian countries, is always Asian way holiday decorated. There is shortage of working places by the window and some employees have to stick artificial windows on the walls. In general, there are many places where people can work, communicate, and also relax as long as they want. It seems, that the only missing things are house slippers, but it turned out that they have it too! The office of the Pionen White Mountain, where the database of quarrelsome WikiLeaks is stored, is located in a former bomb shelter. This "shelter" is in Stockholm, at a depth of 30 meters underground, in a solid granite monolith. The bunker was built during the Cold War and was a central part of the defense system of Stockholm. For the needs of the office it was necessary to blow up and output 4,000 additional cubic meters of rock. The interior design was developed by the architectural bureau Albert France-Lanorda and as basis was taken the idea from one of the Bond films - "Moonraker" (1979). Therefore, a lot indeed strongly reminds asylum of madman billionaire Hugo Drax. The walls of the bunker are covered with a lot of plants, there's even an artificial waterfall. The office has a great aquarium with 2600 liters capacity and a huge conference hall, "descended" from the screen of the Star Wars movies.
Popular search engine giant Google, signed a contract to buy office building in New York at 111 Eight Ave. for about $1.8 billion which will serve as the company's Manhattan headquarters. Google already leases 51000 square meter of space in this 18-story building, which was built in 1932. This sale will be the biggest transaction for a single building in the U.S. this year and the largest commercial real estate purchase by a tenant in U.S. history. The building at 111 Eighth takes up an entire block between West 15th and 16th streets in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, south of Midtown. The former industrial warehouse has 270000 square meter floor space, more than the Empire State Building has. Google Inc., according to the latest data, with market capitalization of $188 billion is the third valuable technology company in the world after Apple and Microsoft. Google Inc. was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Later in 2001, Eric Schmidt from Apple, currently CEO of Goole, jointed the team of two founders. According to the latest company regulatory filling, Schmidt and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, all of whom own significant amounts of company stock, will continue to receive a symbolic $1 salary next year.
