Googleplex

The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google, Inc. and its parent company Alphabet Inc., located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, United States, near San Jose.The original complex, with of office space, is the company's second largest square footage assemblage of Google buildings. Once the Bay View addition went online in 2015, the Googleplex became the largest collection of Google buildings with of space."Googleplex" is a portmanteau of Google and complex (meaning a complex of buildings) and a reference to googolplex, the name given to the large number 10(10100), or 10googol.Facilities and historyThe Original campusSGI CampusThe site was previously occupied by Silicon Graphics (SGI). The office space and corporate campus is located within a larger 26acre site that contains Charleston Park, a 5acre public park; improved access to Permanente Creek; and public roads that connect the corporate site to Shoreline Park and the Bay Trail. The project, launched in 1994 was built on the site of one of the few working farms in the area and was city owned at the time (identified as "Farmer's Field" in the planning documents). It was a creative collaboration between SGI, STUDIOS Architecture, SWA Group, and the Planning and Community Development Agency of the City of Mountain View. The objective was to develop in complementary fashion the privately owned corporate headquarters and adjoining public greenspace. Key design decisions placed parking for nearly 2000 cars underground, enabling SWA to integrate the two open spaces with water features, shallow pools, fountains, pathways, and plazas. The project was completed in 1997. The ASLA noted that the SGI project was a significant departure from typical corporate campuses, challenging conventional thinking about private and public space and awarded the project the ASLA Centennial Medallion in 1999.