Stefan Mileschin

Google is spending a fortune to expand its already huge Googleplex site.

According to the LA Times, Google is preparing to break ground on a 42-acre campus called Bayview which will be based around nine structures, most of which will be four stories tall.

Each building will be shaped like bent rectangles to make room for courtyards and will be connected by bridges, one of which will lead to a green roof with an outdoor cafe.

The office space is a whopping 1.1-million-square-feet campus and has been designed to win lots of awards. They are based on the way Google employees are supposed to work. Google thinks most staffers will be able to work by natural light and without any glare from the sun on their laptops. It will also be the largest office complex in the United States, with all radiant heating, which is designed to save electricity.

No one is saying how much it will cost Google to buy all of this, but our guess is that it will be "shedloads".

According to Google, the company's real estate team relied on reams of data, observing everything from where the sun rises and sets to wind patterns as well as the daily habits of thousands of Google employees.

Before cracking on with its own campus buildings, Google hollowed out the shells of buildings once occupied by Silicon Graphics – a bit like a parasite. But this new campus is on the grounds of NASA's Ames Research Centre, which is next to the current Googleplex.

It will be completed in 2015 and Google claims that it is central to keeping top engineers. It is not the only tech company that thinks having a nice office is important. Facebook is building a Main Street to keep its employees happy. And Apple is building a "spaceship" campus. It is worthwhile pointing out that both Google and Yahoo have decided that it is better to keep employees locked in at work, rather than telecommuting, which they think is unproductive.

http://news.techeye.net/business/goo...tate-expansion