After facing a wee setback named LinkedIn, Google will not be building its massive robot-assisted glass-hatted compound in Mountain View, as you recall. The search and advertising juggernaut is bouncing back from that defeat, however, and last week submitted early plans to the Mountain View City Council for a smaller version of its glass dream house, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports. The proposed project would be just 595,000 square feet, a fraction of the 2.5 million square feet the company originally wanted, and, like last time, springs straight from the frit-studded imaginations of Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studios. The rendering Google released is a bit hard to parse, owing to the enormous contact lens thrown over it, but from what we can see it looks like a cluster of normal flat-roofed buildings wearing a hairnet.
The downsized dome is slated for 18.6 acres that Google controls next to Charleston Park, east of the Googleplex, a plot aptly known as Charleston East. This parcel was not part of the company's original scheme; it comes into play by way of an earlier lease agreement with Mountain View, signed in 2007, that allows the company to build up to 595,000 square feet there.
Google also has plans to build 800,000 square feet on Landings Drive, the sliver of land it did win rights to develop as a consolation prize after the drubbing by LinkedIn.
Though Charleston East is a good deal smaller than even the Landings Drive project, the Silicon Valley Business Journal notes that it could still become a showpiece project for Google. The company's vision for the property is to set off lush Charleston Park and link up the canopied buildings with a network of trails.
The project must still pass muster with the city and go through environmental review, but because the site is already secured, the mini-dome could be the first of Google's projects to move forward.
· Google's Sexy Robot-Assisted Campus Loses Out to Totally Normal LinkedIn Scheme [Curbed SF]
· Here's Google's Plan for Its Futuristic, Robot-Assisted Glassy New Campus [Curbed SF]
· Google Plans Another Glass Dome in Race for Mountain View Space [Silicon Valley Business Journal]
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