Construction has now topped out for the first stage of YouTube’s five-staged masterplan, with crews finishing work on two three-storey steel-and-timber-framed buildings in the heart of the Google-owned Silicon Valley campus.
Designed by New York-based SHoP Architects—who are also behind the Atlassin building in Sydney—and with San Francisco-based Ellis Partners acting as development manager, the new 6.7-acre expansion (which includes 440,000 square feet of open workspace) has been dubbed:
The ultimate “anti-icon: a building that puts people first.”
Wood Central understands that the buildings —rising fast at 1300 Bayhill Drive and 1350 Grundy Lane—are being built over two massive underground concrete car parks, with a combined capacity of about 1900 car parks over three levels.
The building features a steel frame with cross-laminated timber made from pale Douglas fir inserts, with a matte black metal louvre system that wraps around the offices. According to Ellis Partners, the choice to use locally sourced mass timber (rather than conventional steel and concrete) “is estimated to have reduced carbon emissions by nearly 22,000 metric tons,” with the project “introducing 475 native trees to the landscape.”
More than four years after breaking ground on the massive expansion (in August 2020), “These buildings are a reflection of our long-standing partnership,” said YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, adding that the choice to use timber (and other low carbon building materials) led to a 50% saving in embodied carbon:
[They] feature innovations in sustainability that were made possible because of San Bruno city leaders and staff who are excited to work with us so closely to try really new, cutting-edge, more ambitious ways of green building.
YouTube has been headquartered in San Bruno since 2006, the same year that Google purchased the site for US $1.65 billion. Officials from Google and YouTube first discussed an expansion in 2016.
According to SHoP, the focus for the first stage was to maximise the employee experience: “Wellness considerations are present throughout, including access to fresh air, universal daylighting, and a full range of appropriate contemporary work environments.”
“From heads-down solo spaces to grand all-hands gathering—and a pervasive presence of natural, ornamental and functional plantings that work hand-in-hand with the project’s environmental targets,” they said.
Now, attention moves to the second phase of the master plan, which will include two more office buildings, adding more than a quarter million square feet of space. Once constructed, YouTube’s 92.2-acre master plan will see more than two and a half million square feet of additional office space added to the campus—with 20 acres of the site’s southern portion flagged for housing and mid-rise development.
Wood Central understands that both buildings will be operational by mid-next year, and the remaining four development phases—understood to be a 15-year expansion plan—have yet to be published.
- The project was a finalist in the Dubai International Best Practices Award for Sustainable Development, announced earlier this year. To learn more about New Zealand’s Scion’s Innovation Hub, which was crowned the world’s most iconic building, click on Wood Central’s special feature.
