Googleplex Complex, Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, United States

The four core buildings, totaling 47,038 square meters (506,310 sq ft), were built for and originally occupied by Silicon Graphics (SGI). The fice space and corporate campus is located within a larger 26-acre (110,000 m2) site that contains Charleston Park, a 5-acre (20,000 m2) public park; improved access to Permanente Creek; and public trails that connect the corporate site to Shoreline Park and the Bay Trail. The project, launched in 1994 to reclaim a former industrial brownfield, was a creative collaboration between SGI, SWA Group San Francisco, Sausalito, and the Planning and Community Development Agency the City 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 in 1999 that the SGI project was a significant departure from typical corporate campuses, challenging conventional thinking about private and public space.
The former SGI facilities were leased by Google beginning in 2003. In June 2006, Google purchased some Silicon Graphics' properties, including the Googleplex, for $319 million.
Since the buildings are relatively low height, the complex covers a large area. The interior the headquarters is furnished with items like shade lamps and giant rubber balls. The lobby contains a piano and a projection current live Google search queries. The facilities include a gym (Building 40), free laundry rooms (Buildings 40 and 42), two small swimming pools, multiple sand volleyball courts, and eighteen cafeterias diverse selection. Google has also installed replicas SpaceShipOne and a dinosaur skeleton.
Since 2007 the site has featured a series solar panels, covering the rotops eight buildings and two solar carports capable producing 1.6 megawatts electricity. At the time installation Google believed it to be the largest in the United States among corporations. The panels provide the power needed for 30% the peak electricity demand in their solar-powered buildings.