@ Pittsburgh by Strada Architecture

After starting as a two person operation in Carnegie Mellon in 2006, Google now has 150 people in Pittsburgh. In order to accommodate its new employees, Google settled into the penthouse space in a 100 year-old Nabisco cookie factory building.

To make the space Googly, it hired local architecture firm Strada, which worked with Google to create a space that was intimate but with room to expand, says a Strada employee.

The design of Google’s Pittsburgh office resulted from a process that focused on clearly understanding and identifying the unique workplace culture and needs of the local Googlers (workers). A variety of data gathering tools from surveys and Quickfire interviews, to time-lapse photography and multiple Live-In sessions, or spending time observing, talking with, and listening to the Googler’s in their existing office space, were utilized. This data was synthesized into an album that outlined the guiding principals for the design work that was about to begin.

Placing the users and their culture at the forefront of the design process allowed everyone to identify what was most critical for creating a successful workplace. A few of the essential needs were: to create unique wow factors, sustain a close-knit ‘family’ environment, and incorporate quiet spaces that provide a place to simply get away from all the distractions that exist in an open office environment.

“It’s very similar to Googleplex,” said Sunny Gettinger, a Google spokeswoman, referring to the company’s world headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. “It’s a very Googley office.” The office has an open floor plan with many common areas and large windows to keep employees easily accessible to each other. Even Andrew Moore, the director of the office, works in a cubicle like other employees, in order to keep in line with the Google’s culture of maintaining a small-company feel.

Google Pittsburgh employees receive a variety of perks, including micro-kitchens stocked with food and drinks, a reading area, and a lounge area with a pool table and a flat-panel television hooked up to video game systems. Google’s signature exercise balls and large bean bags in the company’s trademark blue, red, yellow, and green are scattered throughout the office. A projected screen in the window of the lobby displays search queries from the Google website. An image generated by Google Earth, Google’s virtual 3-D globe program, is projected behind the receptionist’s desk.

“The office is very bright and colorful, and very stimulating. It has all of the best amenities … that make Google what it is,” Gettinger said. Moore, a former Carnegie Mellon professor, is the director of Google Pittsburgh. Prior to being appointed director in January, Moore taught robotics and computer science in the School of Computer Science.