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For this new space, which will accommodate new hires (Google plans to make 2011 its biggest hiring year ever), Google will pay the city of Mountain View $30 million to lease 9.4 acres of land near Shoreline Boulevard. This is the other part of the 18.6-acre space, nearly half of which Google leased from the city in 2007. Altogether then, Google's office space would occupy 600,000 square feet.
Google has hired Ingenhoven Architects, a German company known for its green, sustainable projects, which include the European Investment Bank building in Luxembourg, as well as the Breeze Tower in Osaka, Japan.
"We've asked them to build the most green, sustainable building possible," a Google spokesman told the Mercury News.