Google has been cleaning up existing buildings in cities across the globe, from San Francisco to Berlin, turning them into colorful work and play environments that are the envy of every cubicle worker. But now the company has unveiled plans to build a structure anew as an extension to their current headquarters in Mountain View, California. The corporate giant gave Vanity Fair the scoop on the green-roofed expansion, which was conceived in collaboration with Seattle-based design firm NBBJ. The 102 thousand square meter extension to the existing Googleplex in California will be constructed on an adjacent 170 thousand square meters site and will featured nine bent rectangles linked by bridges and a host of verdant courtyards and pathways. The buildings will be up to four storeys high and will be organized in accordance with employee work patterns. In other words, departments that work well together will be near each other, and there will be the usual communal and social spaces that encourage cooperation and creativity. One bridge will lead to a green roof and outdoor cafe and the entire complex will be heated with radiant flooring. This less energy intensive system will be the largest of its kind in the United States.

Plans for Apple's new ring-shaped Headquarters in Cupertino have been approved by the city planning commission, although the final decision won't be made until May 2014. The extravagant office building was first envisioned by Steve Jobs, who personally sought approval for it prior to his death in 2011. Designed by Foster + Partners, the US$ 5 billion building, which Apple calls "the best office building in the world," is slated for completion in 2016. The "spaceship" will cover 260 thousand square meters and host up to 14 thousand employees. Roughly 260 thousand square meters of office space, corporate fitness facilities, auditoriums and cafeterias that will handle lunch for 3 thousand employees will be enveloped in pricey floor-to-ceiling panes of concave glass from Germany. A 600-seat restaurant surrounded by over 6 thousand trees will boast floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors. Steve Jobs first introduced the new campus project to the city council in mid-2011. Since the first design was unveiled, the project's estimated price has shot up from an initial US$ 3 billion to US$ 5 billion. Apple will begin tearing down 26 buildings on the existing site in June. These excavations expected to last six months will require a 24-hour convoy of trucks, according a former Apple manager.

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.