Google’s ambition for its new 1.1 million sq ft office campus was to start with its most important asset: its people. The company wanted to utilise healthy materials and biophilic design, improve indoor air quality, and create buildings which upheld design excellence, now and for the future, while helping Google reach its moonshot sustainability goals.
KEY INFORMATION
Location: San Francisco, United States
Date started: 2017
Completion date: 2022
Client type: real estate
Main capabilities: controls and performance, cost and commercial management, programme advisory; sustainability
People-centred offices
The development of Bay View is the first time that Google led the concept and construction of its own major campus, a building that will evolve with its needs while putting the needs of its people at its heart.
After an in-depth exploration of what Googlers need from the workplace, the campus was designed with an emphasis on a floor for collaboration and connection as well as a floor for focus and teamwork.
Successful delivery
We delivered overall cost and project management on the Bay View project, helping Google implement robust controls and reporting procedures as well as general controls improvements on the project.
We managed the project budget from the start through to completion and proved to be integral to its successful delivery. Working through unique challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, we supported Google with all financial facets of the project.
An environmental asset
Sustainability runs through the core of this project. Bay View has the largest geothermal installation in North America and is a water-positive campus, showing what is possible with sustainable design.
It is a development with some of the healthiest materials anywhere, including canopy design and daylighting strategies, which allow electrical lights for all desk areas to be turned off most daylight hours and keeps excess heat out, significantly reducing energy usage.
Its solar covered canopy, known as ‘dragonscale’, has over 60,000 photovoltaic shingles, which generate roughly 40 percent of the building’s annual energy requirements. The geothermal system eliminates the need for boilers and significantly reduces water consumption. This means the building is able to reduce the amount of water required for cooling by 90 percent, which equates to 5 million gallons of water annually.
Bay View is also 100 percent electric and one of the largest all-electric buildings in the United States. Bay View has been instrumental as a case study to push forward Google’s commitment to replenish 120 percent of the water they consume by 2030, all non-potable water demands are met using the recycled water generated on site.
