So your office has table football, desk beers and dress-down Fridays – pretty “cool”, right”? Well, we sincerely doubt it’s as cool as the proposals for Google’s new London headquarters.
The company has officially submitted its plans for a new £1bn building in King’s Cross to Camden council – and you’re going to want to have words with HR once you’ve seen the fun that awaits its employees.
Around 4,500 “Googlers” will get access to a “wellness centre” containing a pool, massage rooms, multiple gyms, a multi-use indoor sports pitch and no fewer than four cafes, the Guardian reported. It's hoped the facilities will, "ensure the health and wellbeing of staff and foster the innovation and creativity that defines the organisation.”
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There will also be a rooftop garden divided over multiple storeys, planted with strawberries, gooseberries and sage, "pause areas" containing meadow and woodland plants, and a 200-metre rooftop running trail. The ground floor will also have shops and an events centre, which could be used to host events and product launches.
If the plans are approved, the 11-storey, 1million sq ft (92,000m2) building will be built parallel to King’s Cross railway station’s platforms from 2018. It's been nicknamed a "landscraper" because it'll be even longer than the Shard is tall once it's finished.
The plans were designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studios, who designed TfL’s new Routemaster bus and the London 2012 Olympic Cauldron. It will be the first building designed specifically for- and owned wholly by Google outside the US.
Google already has an office in King's Cross around the corner from the proposed new site and is planning on moving into a third building in the area, creating a new campus to house its 7,000 employees.
The company confirmed six months ago that it would be sticking to its plans to open a new London HQ, which many viewed as a vote of confidence in the UK economy following the Brexit vote.