Stephen Lam/Reuters
- Google's Mountain View, California headquarters opened a more than 31,000-square-foot area inspired by the area's history of salt mining in 2019.
- The floor is a place for Googlers to hang out, eat, or workout.
- Google is known for its quirky offices, often inspired by the locations where they're built.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Google is known for its fun and unusual offices, and its Mountain View, California headquarters is no exception.
Also called the Googleplex, the company's global headquarters had legendary perks including wellness classes, cafes, and office designs that will put the average cubicle to shame.
Google has a history of placing offices in unexpected buildings and incorporating local culture into offices around the world, from an old airplane hangar in LA to a former vodka factory in Warsaw, Poland. Its Cambridge, Massachusetts office is in a more standard building, but the inside is based on local Boston-area sites.
The Googleplex added 31,276 square feet of themed amenity space that includes three cafes, a fitness center, and seating areas in 2019. It's called Salt, based on the history of salt production in the area. The old ghost town of Saline City and its salt marshes were a source of salt production dating back to 1854.
Form4 Architecture firm used this history to inspire this design. Take a look inside.
The new amenity space is over 31,000 square feet at Google's Mountain View, California headquarters.John SuttonThe design is inspired by salt production, and also based on the history and character of the South Bay.John Sutton
Lighting fixtures and the ceiling are meant to evoke salt's molecular shape, according to the designers.John Sutton
The "Tech Talk" auditorium is a place for presentations and guest speakers.John Sutton
Ceiling elements imitate the natural shape of San Francisco's salt ponds and also absorb sound in the space.John Sutton
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