Google Caribbean

Sunnyvale, California

Two figures on a path through tall grasses, the terraced buildings low on the horizon.

Aerial of the two terraced buildings stepping down toward a creek, the wider campus beyond.

The stepped green roof rising from a planted pond above a glazed facade.

The buildings seen across the meadow, glazed walls beneath planted terraces.

Open-plan office interior behind full-height glazing onto the landscape.

The facade from across a channel, people gathered on the lawn.

The entrance beneath a deep overhang, people crossing the plaza.

People walking beside the glazed facade under the projecting roof structure.

Aerial looking down on the zigzagging roof gardens and the paths crossing them.

Aerial of both buildings, roof gardens stepping in bands across them.

Elevation drawing showing the stepped section of the building.

Google Caribbean

Sunnyvale, California

Year: 2018–
Area: 96,800 m²
Type: Offices
Client: Google
With: BIG
Status: Under construction

Google Caribbean sits in Moffett Park, Sunnyvale: two five-storey office buildings totalling roughly 96,800 m², for around 4,500 people, planned as landscape as much as building.

Each is terraced, stepping back as it rises so the roof becomes a continuous walkable slope rather than a lid. Paths run from the Bay Trail at grade up across the roofs, so the route to a desk is through planting rather than a lobby and a lift core. The two buildings are deliberately unalike: one steps in clear orthogonal plates, the other falls in softer, valleyed contours.

Beneath the landscape the buildings are glass, floor to ceiling, kept plain so the roofscape carries the architecture. Planting is native and low-water; the project targets LEED Gold.