I TOURED GOOGLE'S NEW $2.1 BILLION OFFICE IN NYC AND IT'S LIKE AN ALL-INCLUSIVE WELLNESS RESORT — SEE INSIDE
- In February, Google unveiled its New York City headquarters at Hudson Square.
- Madeline Park visited the brand-new office and felt it was like an all-inclusive wellness resort.
- Here are 15 of the coolest things about the office that stood out to her.
Google welcomed employees to its brand new $2.1 billion office in February in the Hudson Square neighborhood of New York City.
Called St. John's Terminal, the building is 12 stories high and was built on top of a rail terminal from the 1930s.
My friend, who works at Google, invited me to check out the new building as their guest during opening week.
Here are the coolest amenities I saw that make this office feel almost like an all-inclusive wellness resort.
1. The Great Hall
Once I got past security, I was shocked by the sheer amount of space in The Great Hall work lounge.
The lounge has super tall ceilings, cozy furniture, and a café where you can grab drinks like espresso, matcha, coffee, and chai with breakfast — all for free.
I got an Americano, a mini egg salad sandwich, a mini ham and Swiss sandwich, and a smoked lake trout tartine.
2. The fun furniture
The chairs, in particular, caught my eye. They were super vibrant and playful.
I did a quick Google Image search and discovered that the furniture might be a mix of designer and retail. There's a nearly identical-looking bulldog stool online that goes for under $90, and the yellow chair looks like a piece called "Klara," made by Spanish designer and architect Patricia Urquiola.
3. The fully-equipped gym
An entire section of the building is dedicated to the Recreation Center. It has amenities like a spin studio, yoga room, martial arts studio, a separate space for personal training, and even a coach's office for instructors.
4. The spin studio
Google offers weekly spin classes in the private spin studio.
5. The yoga studio
The natural wood yoga studio is right around the corner from the gym and has a calming glow of light.
6. This foot-washing station
The foot-washing station has a little bench you can sit down on, along with fresh towels.
7. The martial arts studio
Next to the yoga studio, there is a fully padded and matted martial arts studio.
8. The massage room and recharge room
The rooms have various percussive and compression therapy devices.
9. "The Shop" of Google merch
Next to the lobby café, there's a dedicated shop full of Google, Android, and YouTube merch. The fitting room alone is larger than the size of my college dorm room.
The items at the store ranged from T-shirts ($30), jackets (~$100), tumblers ($15), and children's books.
10. Google-branded pet accessories
There were even pet accessories branded with the Google logo.
11. The micro kitchens
Google's snack stations come equipped with a $20,000 La Marzocco espresso machine for coffee snobs, a $6,000 digital coffee brewer for the non-coffee snobs, a pile of fresh fruit, and drawers full of snacks.
12. The cafeterias and free food
The actual cafeterias at Google's new office are the ultimate benefit and charm of working here. This cafeteria, which is one of many, is a fully vegan kitchen with a beautiful interior and unlimited, sophisticated vegan dishes.
For lunch, I ate a whipped ricotta and beet tartine, a celeriac schnitzel with sauce Gribiche, and sweet potato kimbap with a side of berries. It was all vegan and very delicious.
13. The bathrooms
The bathrooms are an amenity in itself. Google's 12th-floor all-gender bathroom has a view of the NYC skyline with floor-to-ceiling windows.
Each stall is equipped with feminine product dispensers and full-length mirrors (but alas, no bidet).
14. The coworking spaces
The best part of the office was looking into all the coworking spaces.
Google says it designed the office so that teams are assigned to different "neighborhoods" or spaces in the office — employees don't have assigned desks, so there are a lot of communal and coworking spaces.
Each coworking space is decorated with a theme. I can see how the expansive ceilings and beautifully designed spaces inspire employees to leave their homes and come into the office.
15. The view of the Hudson River
And finally, the view of the Hudson River from the building is breathtaking.
The Google Office at St. John's Terminal is so big that I didn't get to explore all of it.
It was opening week, and already the office was bustling with employees and visitors like me.
Although there were a lot of people, Google seemed to have created enough space dedicated for just about everything to bring up the collaborative energy, efficiency, and even good mood of the employees.
If I worked here, I would want to show up every day.
Madeline Park is a food content creator who shares her recipes and writing on Cafe Maddy.
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2024-03-27T09:15:55Z dg43tfdfdgfd