Google reveals rendering of one-million-square-foot 'Bayview' office park

Google has plans to redesign and rebuild its famed Mountain View Googleplex, and now we have the first idea of what it might look like. Vanity Fair has just gotten a preview of a design rendering for the new 1.1-million-square-foot "Bayview" campus, designed by Seattle-based NBBJ. This, however, would mark a brand-new, designed for Google office park, unlike the buildings Google currently inhabits. "We've been the world's best hermit crabs: we've found other people's shells, and we've improved them," said David Radcliffe, a civil engineer who oversees Google's real estate.

"We've been the world's best hermit crabs."

While NBBJ's render doesn't look radically different from the current Mountain View Googleplex, it does have some notable features. For example, no employee would be more than a two-and-a-half minute walk from each other, something that seems almost impossible for such a large complex. Radcliff said that the bent rectangles seen in the the render encourage a "casual collision of the work force," which would help "create opportunities for people to have ideas and be able to turn to others right there and say, ‘What do you think of this?'"

It's probably too early to read too much into this one render, but we'll be watching to see how Google's new office builds — but in California and in London — develop in the next few years. When asked about Bayview, which sources say will augment and not replace the current Mountain View campus, a Google spokesperson told us that "We are beginning construction on our new Bayview Campus, which is a key to our growth and another sign of our commitment to the area. As this project progresses, we'll continue to work closely with NASA, the community and the City of Mountain View."