Google, Facebook, Uber to Apple, tech giants make big workplace signature statements
Google, following in the tracks of other big tech guns has officially revealed its plans to build a new purpose-built 11-storey London headquarters which will be taller than the Shard skyscraper.
Google, following in the tracks of other big tech guns has officially revealed its plans to build a new purpose-built 11-storey London headquarters which will be taller than the Shard skyscraper. (Google)
Google, following in the tracks of other big tech guns has officially revealed its plans to build a new purpose-built 11-storey London headquarters which will be taller than the Shard skyscraper. The new Google HQ will be located in Central London and is designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studios (previously responsible for the 2012 London Olympic Cauldron and new-look London Routemaster buses) after Google scrapped an earlier set of plans by architects AHMM in 2013. The new HQ in London will have a rooftop garden complete with a running track and is being dubbed as a ‘landscraper’, as per The Verge. Construction on the “Zone A” development will start in 2018 at a site overlooking London’s King’s Cross railway station. The building has been designed to be made from a family of interchangeable elements which ensure that the building and its workspace will stay flexible for years to come. Here are other top companies which have to-die-for headquarters:
Apple: Apple Park, the Cupertino-based tech major’s new 175-acre campus, was launched on September 12 and will be ready for employees in April. However, the process of moving over 12,000 people into the sprawling new campus will take more than six months even as construction continues through the summer. This was as per Steve Jobs’ vision of a center for creativity and collaboration and has an iconic ring-shape and resembles a spaceship. It also has a 2.8 million-square-foot main building clad entirely in the world’s largest panels of curved glass. Also in honour of his memory — Jobs would have turned 62 on February 24 — the theater at Apple Park has been named the Steve Jobs Theater. When it opens later this year, it will include 1,000 people. It is, in fact, a 20-foot-tall glass cylinder, 165 feet in diameter, supporting a metallic carbon-fiber roof situated atop a hill inside Apple Park overlooking meadows and the main building.
Facebook: After moving into a 430,000 sq.ft sprawling facility in Menlo Park, California, two years ago, Facebook is ready to expand its office space with building “an integrated, mixed-use village”. To be called “Willow Campus”, the new facility will provide 125,000 sq.ft of new retail space, including a grocery store, pharmacy, and additional community-facing retail, as per Indian Express report. Facebook envisions that construction will follow in phases, with the first to include the grocery, retail, housing, and office completed in early 2021, and subsequent phases will take two years each to complete. Interestingly, the new campus will be in addition to the existing headquarters and will not replace it.
Uber: Last year Uber got approval for its new offices in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. As per San Francisco Business Times report, the spot is near Golden State Warriors basketball team’s home arena. The project entails two separate buildings- one 11-story structure and a second six-story building down the street. The new Uber campus is scheduled to open by 2018. The coolest feature in the building will be the transparent walkways connecting the buildings. There will also be a glass-enclosed area that appears to hover over the street.
Amazon: The new Amazon headquarters will feature an urban planner with seven hexagon-shaped areas, as per Business Insider report. There would be office buildings, housing, retail, and small parks. Each hexagon district would have a public plaza in its center, which would feature a station manned by the US Border Patrol.
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