Construction has finished for Google’s first mass-timber office at 1265 Borregas Avenue in Moffett Park, Sunnyvale. The site is now adorned by Mothership, a two-ton sculpture by Mike Whiting that pays homage to the original Atari headquarters that preceded the new office. The project is one of the first in the Bay Area to use the burgeoning sustainable construction material.
1265 Borregas Avenue, image by author
The 94-foot tall structure contains 182,500 square feet with parking for 72 bicycles and 424 vehicles across the whole development, some on-site and some off-site at 1190-1197 Borregas Avenue. The interior design, led by SERA Architects, uses exposed timber beams and wood ceilings, concrete flooring, and thin black frames in the curtain wall glass. The final product emphasizes transparency and open floor plans. This experience is heightened by two double-floor team meeting spaces on the northern half of the building and the dramatic four-story atrium split down the center of the building.
1265 Borregas Avenue wooden louvered entrance, rendering by Michael Green Architecture
1265 Borregas Avenue cross-section, illustration by Michael Green Architecture
Michael Green Architecture is responsible for the design. The structure’s shell is molded with inset and pushed-out balconies that increase the energy performance. Shading the interiors will be louvered Venetian-style blinds made of unpainted wood. Outside, SWA Group is responsible for the landscape architecture, which couches the timber building with pathways, grade-level planters, and trees.
The entry plaza will extend from Borregas Avenue along the building’s southern face and eventually connect to a multi-sports complex to be added in phase two of construction. Other outdoor amenities in the courtyard will include space for outdoor dining space and seating.
1265 Borregas Avenue view from Gibraltar Court, rendering by Michael Green Architecture
Mothership sculpture by Mike Whiting, image courtesy Plus Gallery
The public art sculpture by Mike Whiting, Mothership, has been installed at the corner of Borregas Avenue and Gibraltar Court. The artist shared on social media that “‘Mothership’ is a pixel-based UFO sitting on a beam of yellow/yellow-green/green ‘light.’ These stripes reference the stripe motif on the walls of the original Atari headquarters that stood here.”
Once complete, the project is expected to host as many as a thousand employees and receive LEED Platinum certification in recognition of resource efficiency across the project. This first project by Google with mass timber is a precursor to plans for future projects across the Bay Area by the tech giant, including the under-construction YouTube HQ expansion by SHoP Architects in San Bruno.
1265 Borregas Avenue site map, rendering by Michael Green Architecture
1265 Borregas Avenue window close-up taken in November 2021, image by Andrew Campbell Nelson
1265 Borregas Avenue looking south across Gibraltar Court, image by author
Construction started in November 2020. As referenced by Mothership, 1265 Borregas used to contain the Atari international headquarters. XL Construction is the contractor, and Kier & Wright is the civil engineer. Sares Regis Group of Northern California was the Development Manager for Google on this project
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This project is known as MT1, and it was completed in Q4 of last year. I’m not sure why it has taken you over 6 months to report on it, nor do I see the relevance of a suburban midrise office building in the middle of dozens of other suburban midrise office buildings being reported on Yimby.
I think the “relevance” is that it was the former Atari HQ and they made a little art thing for it…