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Google has opened a building in New York City to house its North American operations, housed in a 1930s railroad terminal that was restored and transformed by architecture studios CookFox Architects and Gensler.
Developed by Oxford Properties, this 232-foot (70-meter), 12-story office building is the North American headquarters of Google’s global business organization and is located on the west side of Manhattan, north of the Tribeca neighborhood.
The scheme’s design architects, CookFox Architects, transformed the 1930s railway terminus known as St John’s Terminal, which is now the terminus of the High Line, to create offices. building. The studio added nine floors to the restored original three floors.
CookFox Architects also cut away a portion of the old terminal south of Houston Street that runs parallel to the new entrance, exposing the building’s structure.
“We severed the historic structure south of Houston Street, removed a dark tunnel, and restored pedestrian connections between the Hudson Yards neighborhood and the waterfront on the west side,” said Cook Fox Architects. “This strategic cut exposes the rail bed and reveals the dock’s history to the public.”
The building’s original rail bed was left exposed on the facade and then covered in plantings, creating a linear overhang at the entrance.
CookFox Architects said: “The rail bed within St John’s Terminal is revealed in the cut facade, as in the section, and the landscape now visually connects pedestrians and occupants to nature, while Enhanced newly opened streetscape.”
International architecture studio Gensler led the project’s interior architecture. The studio is designed around the “community” within the organization and around the functions of the team units within the organization.
Carlos M. Martínez Flórez, head of Gensler, told Dezeen: “The Saint John Terminal is designed to reactively and proactively support the needs of Google teams and help Google employees work faster and more efficiently. Do your best work efficiently.”
“Clustered workspaces filled with amenities, recreational spaces, and circulation spaces, pre-planned to quickly adapt to changes in support spaces, will give each team a sense of ownership of their community so Googlers can Live authentically while collaborating side-by-side throughout the workday.”
The building will house more than 3,000 “Googlers,” and will be divided into 60 “zones” that will serve as central spaces for teams of approximately 20-50 employees, eliminating designated desks in favor of flexible seating areas.
Other spaces include work lounges, cafés, terraces, micro kitchens and event spaces such as theaters on each floor. The 1.5 acres of land outside the building are planted with native New York plants.
The team said the building’s core and shell development has achieved LEED v4 Platinum certification and is seeking LEED v4 Platinum certification for the interior design.
The team said its retrofits are “expected to reduce emissions by approximately 78,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent” compared to new structural construction.
Other sustainable design strategies incorporated into its design include solar panels, stormwater retention, and the use of recycled wood from the Coney Island boardwalk following Hurricane Sandy.
Google announced its purchase of the St. John’s terminal in December 2018 and pledged to double its New York workforce over the next decade.
“More than 14,000 Googlers now call New York home, up from 7,000 in 2018 when we first announced our participation in the program,” Google said in a statement.
“Not only did we deliver on our promise to double New York’s workforce within a decade of this announcement, we did it in half the time.”
At the building’s dedication ceremony, New York Governor Kathy Hochul gave a speech about the development.
“You’re going to get a property that people have ignored for decades or passed by and never saw the future. But you do it. That’s the genius of Google. Seeing possibilities that no one else sees,” Hochul said.
The headquarters is part of the company’s surrounding master plan, which will include two other buildings currently under construction at 315 and 345 Hudson Street.
It joins a number of recently completed projects in West New York, including BIG’s twisting One High Line building and Field Operations’ Gansevoort Peninsula park.
Photography courtesy of Google
Project credits:
core and shell
Design Architect: Cook Fox Architects, DPC
Website developer: Oxford real estate
architect of record: Adamson Associates, PC
civil engineer: Philip Habib and colleagues
general contractor:Turner Construction
Landscape designer: Future Green Studio Inc.
Lighting designer: Lumen Architecture, PLLC
Internal
Lead Interior Architect and Designer: executioner
General contractor: Structural Tone – Turner, a Joint Venture
Landscape Design: Future Green Design Company
Landscape Architect of Record: Langen Engineering & Environmental Services
Lighting designer: Castelli Design, Fisher Marantz Stone Inc., Lightswitch, Lighting Workshop Inc. L’Observatoire International, Inc.
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