Google announces move to newly renovated New York GBO Headquarters

Google has announced their move to the newly renovated New York headquarters near Hudson Square. The headquarters are in a repurposed 1930’s railway terminus at the nexus of Hudson River Park, the West Village, SoHo and Tribeca. The 12-story St John’s Terminal building has been dubbed a “workplace designed for teams,” but it’s also providing a new home for local flora and fauna. The rail bed gardens and terraces located on 1.5 acres of street-level vegetation are made up of 95% made up of plants native to New York State. Furthermore, the habitat created by the project has attracted more than 40 bird species. These include “birds fueling up for a trans-Atlantic migratory flight,” wrote Google’s president for Americas and Global Business, Sean Downey.

Why Google renovated the New York Headquarters

Google stated that rather than constructing its new headquarters from scratch, renovating the old building saved 78,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. This is equivalent to taking around 17,000 cars off the road for a year. Google also claimed it had prevented 77% of its construction waste from ending up in landfills. The tech giant began leasing the St. John’s Terminal site in 2019. They then bought it outright in 2022 for $2.1 billion. The building is now the company’s largest outside California. It serves as a headquarters for Google’s Global Business Organization, which includes the firm’s sales and partnership teams.

Renovation timeline

The renovation project was commissioned nearly 6 years ago, pre- pandemic, but its final design was later adapted to offer more flexible work arrangements. Google has hailed the new building as a place to connect and innovate. The tech giant began leasing the St. John’s Terminal site in 2019. They then bought it outright in 2022 for $2.1 billion. The building is now the company’s largest outside California. It serves as a headquarters for Google’s Global Business Organization, which includes the firm’s sales and partnership teams.

The interiors were designed by international architecture studio Gensler. The building can accommodate around 3,000 workers and is organized into 60 “neighborhoods” for teams of around 20 to 50 people.

Additionally, there are no assigned desks but instead workers can use flexible seating areas or shared spaces including lounges, cafes, terraces and micro-kitchens. There are currently more than 14,000 Google employees in New York. This is a dramatic jump from 7,000 when the company announced the St. John’s Terminal project in 2018, despite sweeping layoffs across several divisions earlier in this year.

Other renovated Google offices

The complex is one of several Google offices built in renovated structures. One of these includes a converted flour mill in Dublin, a former aircraft hangar in LA’s Playa Vista neighborhood. More notably, the Pier 57, once a New York City shipping terminal. It is now part of the broader 1.7-million-square foot Hudson Square Google complex. The tech firm also recently converted the nearby Chelsea Market, purchased for $2.4 billion in 2018, into a retail and office development.