The circus tent-like roof of Google’s Bay View office building is covered with ‘dragon scales’, custom-designed solar panels that help power the campus. (Source: The Washington Post video)

Google’s Bay View Campus Opens with Solar Energy, Attractions for Home Workers

Since the pandemic, there has been a major shift in nearly every wing of the American economy. There are huge changes in how far some companies are willing to go to entice the American workforce back into the office. Corporations of every shape and size pulled out their digital wands and sent everyone home to work from there. It was a successful idea for most companies. Companies learned that while operations continued, for the most part, they were left paying rent and or taxes on empty buildings.

More than likely, some smaller operations are taking a cue from Google the digital daddy of platforms. Google invested heavily in the design and construction of a new campus.

The Bay View campus was under development years before the pandemic outbreak. Google says the pandemic didn’t influence any of its decisions for the new office, rather it reaffirmed the need to re-conceptualize the workplace. As a result, the company believes it has developed an office that can flex to the evolving needs of workers.

Google’s new Bay View campus in Mountain View, Calif., might best be described as a mash-up of a steel-clad circus tent, a prominent international airport, and an indoor shopping or entertainment center. The office is complete with droves of natural sunlight, two-story art installments, and colorful street signs that adorn each corridor.

“We thought … ‘How do we make a campus that will be functional and vibrant for more than 100 years?’ ” said Michelle Kaufmann, director of Google’s real estate research and development team, in an interview with The Washington Post. “We knew that flexibility was going to be important.”

The Bay View office has about 25 themed courtyards, which aim to serve as central meeting points for various parts of the sprawling campus. Each courtyard is uniquely themed and complemented by art installments from local artists. Even superstar Lizzo gave a come back to work concert.

Two floors serve very different purposes at Google’s Bay View campus. The bottom floor is for socialization, collaboration, dining, and activities, whereas the top floor offers dedicated desk space and small huddle rooms for more intimate team meetings.

“There’s always the debates that open offices can be great for creative sparks and casual collisions but can be hard to focus with the distractions,” Kaufmann said. “Instead of just going back-and-forth on that debate, we tried to design a third thing, a new thing.”

When the name of the campus is Bay View, you know it is not going to be too bad. Writer Danielle Abril gave her opinion of Bay View with a piece found at washingtonpost.com. She revealed some of the changes that Google made after asking their employees worldwide to tell them what would improve working at Google.

Here are some of the highlights :

  • Themed courtyards for socialization
  • A dedicated floor for focus work
  • Collaborative meeting rooms
  • Sustainability features
  • Quirks and perks

The new office at Bay View Campus looks like a huge step forward for designers and developers who are searching for CEOs with the willingness to try something new.  You can see some great photos of the changes Google instituted by clicking the link below.

read more at washingtonpost.com