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Google's future 42-acre 'Bayview' home gets its own Vanity Fair profile
Usually when we get a peek at Google's Mountain View home it's to gawk at the latest Android-related statue but a Vanity Fair article posted today showed the company's future HQ plans. After initiating plans for a new structure next to the existing Googleplex and then abandoning them last year, it's opting for a new facility designed by Seattle firm NBBJ (which also created offices for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) in another area of the city. Planned to open as soon as 2015 -- potentially ahead of Apple's halo-shaped new digs -- it's called Bay View and consists of nine buildings connected by bridges over 42 acres. According to Google it's designed for many workers to operate just on natural light, and avail themselves of the many cafes and green roofs. Quoted in the article is civil engineer David Radcliffe, who claims that employees will never be more than a two and a half minute walk away from each other, which, along with the bent floorplan of each building, is intended to create opportunities for innovation through "casual collisions". These are just some of the tidbits included in the article waiting beyond the source link, but we're still trying to figure out where they hid parking spots for all the self-driving cars. [Image credit: NBBJ]
Googleplex expansion plans hint at Project X lab, wireless testing facilities
Google's eyeing up some vacant space at the end of its lawn to throw $120 million at a Grand Designs-style extension to its Mountain View campus. Residents will soon see the @Home lab, purportedly to test fully formed consumer devices and whatever secret home entertainment / wireless communications gear we've heard rumblings about. The new development will enable Project X (the interesting one with the James Bond-gizmos, not the lecture series website) to move into a meatier facility where they can perfect projects like Majel and the self-driving car. The most notable development (according to business-types, anyway) is the "Experience Center," a 120,000 square foot private museum / demonstration space for Google to schmooze its most important clients in style (wait, aren't we the most important clients?). VIPs will be invited to play with the newest toys the company can produce before gorging themselves on canapés, or something. Californians wandering past 1600 Shoreline Blvd down the road from the Googleplex, might also notice a new building that's not covered in official branding -- because it's going to be a new wireless testing facility that's being shielded from external signals. At least, that's where we'll be pitching a tent with a couple of long lenses when it opens for business.
