Press Releases

OAKLAND, California (January 5, 2023) – With a design that celebrates innovation, sustainability, and the community, Google’s new Bay View Campus in Mountain View, California was recognized by Engineering News-Record as Project of the Year and Best Office among the ENR 2022 Global Best Projects. In addition, the Bay View project was named by Silicon Valley Business Journal as the Best Campus of 2022 – an award that’s part of the journal’s annual Structures Awards Program. As the geotechnical engineer-of-record, Kleinfelder is honored to have played a key role on the project team.

Situated on the edge of the ecologically rich and culturally significant San Francisco Bay, the new Bay View campus spans a 42-acre site that houses two office buildings, a 1,000-seat event center, a parking garage, and 240 units of employee housing. Office space totals 1.2 million square feet. The Bay View project features several details that focus on sustainability strategies, including innovative water recycling systems and one of the world’s largest systems to combine building foundation design with geothermal energy systems.

The foundation soils for the Bay View project near the San Francisco Bay are relatively weak and prone to settlement when new development occurs. To accommodate the designer’s need for significant changes in ground surface elevation around portions of the new buildings, Kleinfelder’s geotechnical design included establishing a portion of the new ground surface elevation through targeted use of an ultra-lightweight “cellular” concrete, which reduced the potential for ground settlement to damage the new buildings.

To help reduce operational carbon by an estimated 50% and water used for cooling by up to about 90%, Kleinfelder recommended integrating the buildings’ pile foundations with a geothermal ground source heat pump technology to help heat the buildings in winter and cool them in the summer. Most of the pile foundations at Bay View, which range in depth from 40 to 90 feet, are integrated into this energy pile geothermal system, making it the largest application of this technology in North America.

Bay View is among the largest buildings in the world to receive Platinum certification for LEED for Building Design and Construction under LEED v4.

During construction, Kleinfelder led efforts to reduce construction waste from soils and aggregates. Through collaboration with the civil designers, pavement designs were refined to utilize a significant amount of recycled pavement materials that otherwise would have ended up in landfills.

Kleinfelder’s technical expertise was vital to the successful completion of the Bay View Campus project.  Critical project tasks included technical reviews during conceptual design phases, a comprehensive geotechnical field investigation, and continued geotechnical consulting and collaboration with the owner and the design team through all phases of design and foundation construction.

“Opportunities to collaborate with a top-tier design team and project owner on a project like this do not come around often,” commented Kleinfelder Senior Principal Professional Mark Fuhriman, PE, GE. “Unusual design elements and demanding performance requirements on the Bay View project challenged us to innovate and be creative in our geotechnical design approach to fulfill Google’s expectations for a functional, inspiring space for research and product development while considering the sensitive San Francisco Bay ecosystem, energy efficiency, and sustainability.”

Kleinfelder. Bright People. Right Solutions. Founded in 1961, Kleinfelder is a leading engineering, design, construction management, construction materials inspection and testing, and environmental professional services firm.  Kleinfelder employs more than 3,000 professionals and operates from over 100 office locations in the United States, Canada, and Australia.  The company is headquartered in San Diego, California.  Poised for growth, Kleinfelder continues to provide high-quality solutions for our diverse client base.  Visit Kleinfelder.com or follow us on LinkedIn/Kleinfelder.