February 17, 2016

Google opens Kirkland expansion

Photo by Nat Levy [enlarge]

Google now has 375,000 square feet of space on the Kirkland campus.

Google has opened a 180,000-square-foot expansion on its engineering campus in Kirkland, making this the Mountain View, California-based company's third largest satellite office in the U.S.

Google now has a total of 375,000 square feet in Kirkland and 1,000 employees. The new space at 451 Seventh Ave. S. creates enough room to double the size of the campus, according to Google's Kirkland site lead, Peter Wilson.

Google has been in Kirkland since 2004, and employees there work on such programs as Hangouts, Cloud, Chrome and Maps.

“We are so fortunate to have Google in our community,” said Kirkland Mayor Amy Walen, who attended yesterday's opening event. “I always say, and I still believe, that it is kind of like having Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory in your town because magical and mysterious things happen.”

Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene were among the other elected officials who attended the opening.

SRM Development of Spokane developed the campus. SRM's construction arm built the shell and core of the new buildings, and Google handled tenant improvements.

Here is SRM's design team: DLR Group, architect, mechanical and electrical engineer and energy modeling consultant; DCI Engineers, structural; KPFF Consulting Engineers, civil; Thomas Rengstorf & Associates, landscape architect; and ArchEcology, LEED consultant.

The building has four Pacific Northwest-themed sections: Mountain, Forest, Valley and Sound. Mountain has private “caves” where people can take a nap or read a book. Forest has a human-sized “nest,” a semi-enclosed space made out of wood from trees that grew on the site. Valley has view decks and a vertical garden. Sound has a shipping container, a working crane and a large skylight.

A skybridge connects the existing campus with the new building.

Sustainability is a key part of the project, which is targeting LEED platinum. In a first for Google, the expansion uses “chilled beams,” which run fluid through pipes to heat and cool the building. The beams are part of an innovative HVAC system that Inslee said will cut energy use by 55 percent.

The building also has a green roof, solar installations and biodegradable materials.

“We invest a lot of time and a lot of money in, for example, our indoor air quality,” said Anthony Smith, Google's head of real estate in the Americas. “The stuff that we are all breathing right now couldn't be of a higher quality.”

The site once was home to a chemical mixing and packaging plant called Pace National. SRM completed a cleanup in 2012 that brought the land to state standards, but Google wanted to remove all remaining contamination, even chemicals at concentrations that were below state cleanup levels.