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Moving into the next phase of its showpiece campus plans, Google officials submitted new architecture designs in recent days for two projects in North Bayshore. Taken together, the twin proposals call for 800,000 square feet of new office space as well as 3,200 parking stalls.
The two North Bayshore proposals would develop what are known as the Landings and Huff sites. Neither proposal should come as any major surprise for Mountain View officials since they’ve both been in the queue of approved gatekeeper projects for about three years. In fact, city officials had been ratcheting up pressure on Google officials to stop dragging their heels and submit formal designs.
The more remarkable of the pair is the Landings project, located just north of Highway 101 at 2171 Landings Drive. The plans call for an 800,000 square-foot building that marks a new course for the company’s unorthodox office architecture. A couple years ago, Google drew international headlines for the bubble-dome design and photovoltaic rooftops of its Charleston East and Bay View buildings. With Landings, the company appears to be adopting another distinct style.
The design plans by the Heatherwick Studio architecture firm call for a cluster of buildings linked in a “sawtooth” archway. This layout would have the some offices along the middle of the arc raised up to two stories off the ground with a private walkway running below. The buildings would be five stories at most, but they would be raised much higher due to the archway design.
“The intent — from design to the proposed materials for construction — is for the building to blend in with its surroundings as much as possible,” the Heatherwick architects explained in their proposal. “The building envelope … breathes new life into the sawtooth roof, reinterpreting it as a fluid and collective form.”
On the ground floor, the Landings project calls for a variety of employee cafes and unspecified amenities. Below the offices would be a large garage with room for up to 1,408 vehicles.
Unlike the Charleston East project with its promenade and “Green Loop” walkway open to the public, the Landings site would be largely off-limits. The building would be encircled with hedges and fencing to prevent outsiders from strolling through. Instead, the public would be routed to a new extension of the Green Loop trail that would be built on the east side of the Landings project alongside Permanente Creek.
To build the project, Google would be tearing down about 250,000 square feet of offices currently in use. Google received permission to increase that footprint by about 550,000 more square feet as part of a 2015 city allocation, bringing the total up to about 800,000
To build the Landings project, Google is asking permission to remove nearly 900 trees. Of those, about 374 are listed as heritage trees, including many redwoods. To replace them, the company is proposing to plant 735 new trees.
If city approvals are granted, construction for the Landings project is expected to move forward in 2020.
“This is the start of a conversation with the city and community of Mountain View on the redevelopment of our Landings offices, which we believe could better complement and connect with the surrounding North Bayshore neighborhood,” said Drew Wenzel, Google development executive, in a statement.
The Huff project is much more straightforward — It’s a proposal for a giant parking garage with room for 1,792 vehicles. The site is an 8-acre gravel lot, located on Huff Avenue about a quarter mile south of Charleston Road.
For help meeting its parking needs, Google currently leases space at Shoreline Amphitheater from Live Nation, but that arrangement is expected to end in 2025. City officials say the Huff project is expected to replace that parking supply, allowing Google’s other office projects to move forward.
Along with the garage, Google is also planning to include about 8,000 square feet of new retail space that architects note would be suitable for a fitness center or food retail.
Mountain View city officials are currently scheduled to discuss the new North Bayshore projects at the Dec. 11 City Council meeting.
Clarification: Amended information on the construction schedule and density bonus for the Google Landings project.
Big companies should be adding office or other business space where there is room nearby for new housing and stores and schools – not where local residents will be overwhelmed with all of the new employees and families and traffic. But the prospect of MORE MONEY for City Hall and maybe still-higher housing prices for homeowners and rents for landlords has evidently inspired local “leaders” to approve still more business expansion. And by the way, North Bayshore has plenty of landfill. Maybe the next big earthquake will help solve the problem of over-crowding these “leaders” have helped create.
“Google is asking permission to remove nearly 900 trees. Of those, about 374 are listed as heritage trees, including many redwoods. To replace them, the company is proposing to plant 735 new trees.”
Chopping down 900 trees including 374 huge ones and replanting 735 saplings? North Bayshore is turning into 100% concrete and steel.
Shoreline was in the past a swamp / bay wetlands. Any tree since then was planted to make the area look industrial and thus a fast growing “waste” trees. Now we are worried about trying to save them? What need to be addressed are the 4000 cars going into the limited access area. And the worst potential problem are the 100s of buses trying to speed down side streets and roads not designed for heavy bus transports. I have to deal with several double parked buses on my way home. Why are they allowed to use side streets and block traffic?
Great more traffic and less housing just what Mountain View needs
“Google is asking permission to remove nearly 900 trees. Of those, about 374 are listed as heritage trees, including many redwoods. To replace them, the company is proposing to plant 735 new trees.”
Not even replacing ALL the trees they cut?? What happened to the 3:1 mitigation? Have they finally dropped their “Do no harm” motto?
Google/Waymo continues to negatively impact what was once a quiet neighborhood. They’ve outgrown their new digs at Central and San Antonio and have nowhere near enough parking for their employees. When will our fair city stand up for its residents?
They can’t replace all the trees, because there will be more office space than before. also each newer tree will take up more square footage, since the junk redwoods that litter the area are taller than they are wider. I expect that the total tree canopy size will increase. Lastly, none of the trees are native, they were all planted when the first round of industrialization was done in the 70’s. Wait 10 yrs, the trees will grow plenty big.
The prospect of More Money for City Hall and maybe still-higher housing prices for homeowners and rents for landlords has evidently inspired local “leaders” to approve still more business expansion.
Heritage trees in MV are also defined as any oak tree (or several others) that exceed about 4 inches in diameter. So a quite small redwood or oak could classify as “heritage’. I found this out last week when I was starting a project to thin out an overgrown part of my property! Don’t let oaks from ‘little acorns grow’ for too long! It cost me $116 to permit to start to try to remove one ‘small’ oak close to my foundation and roof. This is not one of my neighborhood’s multi-century old oaks!
Recycle large redwoods – into redwood lumber at Big Creek Lumber/mill in Santa Cruz County. I’m sure they will be more than glad to cut and take the trees for free! Google could even reuse/recycle them into heartwood benches. Big Creek says they mill over 20,000,000 board feet of redwood annually.
https://bigcreeklumber.com
Contact their Forestry Department
(831) 466-2430
forestryinfo@big-creek.com
It’s great to read that Google continues to be committed to the long term success of North Bayshore. Interesting architecture and a positive commitment to the ecological health of the area. Don’t forget that trees are a renewal resource.
What’s disappointing to me is that the largest image that the MV Voice provides is 600×300. Something about 3x that would make it possible to really view the renderings.
Dan, I think I found the renderings. They weren’t in the City’s laserfiche collection, but the zoning permit referenced “project drawings by Bjarke Ingels and Heatherwick Studios”. So if do a Google search on that, you’ll see what they have in mind.
And for those who don’t know, Google is also planning 9,850 housing units in North Bayshore, and the first one for 635 just got approved and will probably start construction next year. The others are now in proposal stage, but the locations are known (Pear, Shorebird, and Joaquin).
BTW, the 9,850 housing allocation is not Google but the North Bayshore Precise Plan. Thought I’d better make that clear.
This is much better. It’s on pinterest. Wow!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/428967933233224147
that pinterest link is definitely from the plans they submitted in 2015 (or so). The new drawings in the Voice article don’t match that web link, though.