Exterior work is progressing rapidly on Google’s 1.3 million-square-foot office at 550 Washington Street in Hudson Square. Designed by COOKFOX Architects and developed by Oxford Properties, the building is the main component of the “Googleplex” that encompasses a total of 1.7 million square across three structures, along with 315 Hudson Street and 345 Hudson Street. Turner Construction is responsible for building the 12-story edifice that spans two full city blocks between West Street, West Houston Street, Washington Street, and the New York Department of Sanitation building.
Recent photos show the substantial progress that has occurred since our last update in November, when the superstructure had just finished topping out.
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
Most of the exterior work is complete on the western elevation facing the Hudson River, with only the top setbacks on the expansion awaiting the last sections of the envelope. New windows with black mullions were spotted being installed on the repurposed St. John’s Terminal podium, blending nicely with the brick masonry walls.
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
The northern upper corner 550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
The opposite eastern profile is not too far behind, with a small amount of scaffolding and black netting remaining on the terminal. The elevator hoist is placed on the northeastern corner of the edifice.
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
The short southern elevation has solar shading louvers placed between the floor-to-ceiling windows.
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
The northern wall of 550 Washington Street gives us the best visual representation of both the old and new superstructures coming together. Glass and metal spandrels already fully envelope the top floors. They will rest atop what will soon be a hollow steel-framed canopy made of multiple girders placed at the top of the terminal’s original roof line.
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young
Renderings depict the ground-floor entrance slightly set back from the street thanks to a lush landscape against the sidewalk. The glass over the main entryway looks to be held up by a tight grid of dark industrial-style mullions that match the aesthetics of the other windows across St. John’s Terminal.
Rendering of 550 Washington Street by COOKFOX Architects)
Occupants will have access to landscaped terraces, large expansive rooftop areas that overlook the Hudson River and the Lower Manhattan and Midtown skylines, a landscaped entry plaza on the northern end of the structure, and amenities that have yet to be announced.
550 Washington Street is expected to be completed sometime next year.
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Especially like the rendering of the north side. It almost looks like the older podium building has been sliced open.
Amazing how quickly they are making progress on this. Feels like it wasn’t too long ago that we saw the northern portion of the terminal come down (and I can’t wait to see the plans for that parcel). This is going to be a great-looking office building.
Now if only we could bury and build on top off that UPS garage …
Pretty good..but you’d expect something even better from the ‘Masters of the Universe’.
It’s relatively simple, yet it still looks fantastic. Great!
Let’s also happily realize that if it wasn’t for Google, we wouldn’t be looking at this article from YIMBY (unless you use a different search engine). ☺
Thomas, I think you must be the most positive person I’ve ever ‘met’
Good for you!
Thanks!
Its going so quickly because it’s built union! It’s built Turner! You truly do get what you pay for in this industry. Excellent job by all parties involved here. Looks awesome! Drove by on the highway for about a week while working downtown and was mesmerized at the size of the project. Fine job!
Hmmmm…aren’t there naysayers telling us “Nobody is ever gonna work in an office building in Manhattan again! Especially a tech person.”? Obviously – and thankfully – they are wrong. And are, and will be, proven wrong. This new building is among many for proof. But the dastards in City Hall and Albany who (mostly) needlessly put our city in a coma, while also allowing/condoning lawlessness for perverse political purposes, for a year already, must GO, for the City to truly recover.
I so agree.
Google now has more employees in NY than California.
It’s going so quickly because they simply disregard permitting and noise complaints. They’ve used jackhammers after hours, work every weekend and on and on. To paraphrase the great Flavor Flav, 311 is a joke