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.

The PNC (Financial Service Corporation) Financial Group announced this week, that it plans to construct the world's greenest skyscraper. The Tower at PNC Plaza will be located In Pittsburgh, where PNC has been headquartered for more than 150 years. Once completed in 2015, the approximately 40 storey building will serve as PNC's executive Offices. At approximately 75 thousand square meters, the Tower at PNC Plaza would be PNC's largest building in Pittsburgh. Tentative plans call for approximately 300 underground parking spaces, street level retail and green rooftops. Erecting the planned $400 million Tower should create 2,500 construction jobs. Deconstruction of buildings on the site is expected to begin late in 2011, with construction scheduled to begin in the spring of 2012. PNC anticipates completion of the Tower at PNC Plaza in the summer of 2015. The project is being designed by the Pittsburgh office of Gensler, the world's largest architectural and design firm. Pittsburgh-based PJ Dick will serve as construction manager and U.K.-based Buro Happold will be the engineering firm. Paladino & Company of Seattle serves as the green building consultant. The Tower at PNC Plaza will feature a double glass facade to enhance energy efficiency by reducing cooling costs and allowing natural airflow to the building. Using advanced sensors and metering, a state-of-the-art, high efficiency heating and cooling system will deliver conditioned air to specific zones of the building, as needed. The building will be oriented to take advantage of sunlight in workspaces, reducing the need for artificial light during the day. The design team is also currently exploring fuel cells, solar panels, geothermal systems and other alternative power generation sources that will significantly reduce carbon emissions. The building's green rooftops will collect rainwater and channel it for use in other parts of the structure, as well as reduce the heat gain associated with traditional rooftops. PNC, the sixth largest bank by deposits in the United States, opened its first green building in 2000. At that time, the 60 thousand square meters PNC Firstside Center was the largest LEED-certified building in the world. In 2010, PNC opened Three PNC Plaza, one of the largest LEED-certified mixed use buildings in the United States. PNC, which has more newly constructed buildings LEED-certified by the USGBC than any company on Earth, recently completed its latest green office building in Washington, D.C. LEED Platinum certified PNC Place at 800 17th Street sits just blocks from the White House and serves as PNC's regional headquarters in the capital.

Google has unveiled plans for a new campus in the Moffett Park area of Sunnyvale, California that will be located just a few kilometers from its long-awaited “Googleplex” headquarters in Mountain View. And just like the company’s Mountain View and London campuses in the works, the building has been designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), reported the Archdaily. According to the architectural portal, the complex will consist of two terracing buildings containing over 93 thousand square meters of office space and room for up to 4,500 employees. And as in many of BIG’s most successful projects, the design concept centers on fostering activity and maximizing accessible space, including on its ramped roof where Google workers will be able to walk, bike or rollerblade between levels. By bringing the roof down to ground level, the buildings will become a visual extension of the surrounding parks and neighborhood, a site that Google envisions as a future mixed-use community where its employees could both work and reside. The land for the project was acquired in a US$ 210 million deal with NetApp earlier this month and in a larger land grab purchased in July of last year, totaling 164 thousand square meters. The Caribbean is envisioned as part of a larger strategy for the expansion of Google’s presence in the city. As part of their community outreach initiative, Google has already contributed over US$1million toward housing for Sunnyvale's homeless population and more than US $750 thousand toward educational projects.