Google opens block-long NY office

NEW YORK: It’s so big, you won’t even need Google Maps to find it. Google has a new home in New York: a 300,000-sq ft, three-floor office that covers a Manhattan city block. The California-headquartered Google has had employees in New York in advertising sales since ’00 and in engineering since ’03. It said the new office is a step up.

“About a year ago we really decided that New York could be a very significant presence for Google,” said Tim Armstrong, vp of advertising sales. “We outgrew our old space,” said engineering director Craig Nevill-Manning.

The company has three floors in a building that stretches from Eighth Avenue to Ninth Avenue and from 15th Street to 16th Street, a few blocks west of Union Square. The workspace is built around the concept of working in teams, with people sharing offices and cubicles connected in groups.

Along with a cafeteria and a game room, there are snack stations throughout the office.

There also are a number of conference rooms named after New York landmarks including Alice Tully Hall, the Cloisters and the Apollo Theatre. Mr Armstrong said the office space was built to Google’s specifications and the company had a long-term lease. He declined to say how long that was or how much the project cost.

Nevill-Manning said there are about 100 projects being worked on in the office. The New York office was the origin point for the project that became Google Maps.