In celebration of the opening of its New York headquarters, which is located in the 1.3 million square foot St. John’s Terminal building at 550 Washington Street in Hudson Square, Manhattan, Google staged a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday.The Googleplex master plan, which includes 315 Hudson Street and 345 Hudson Street, spans 1.7 million square feet and features a 12-story structure that featured the adaptive reuse of a 90-year-old former freight station. The project was designed by COOKFOX Architects and constructed by Oxford Properties. The 232-foot structure, which is bounded by West Street, West Houston Street, Washington Street, and the New York Department of Sanitation building, was designed by Gensler for the interiors, Future Green Studio Corp. for the landscape, Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP for the structural engineering, and Structure Tone and Turner Construction for joint general contracting.

Since the last update in April of last year, finishing touches have been applied to the northern elevation facing Houston Street. This includes the installation of Google signs over the concrete-encased I-beams that once supported the elevated railway tracks. The main entrance, surrounded by ADA-accessible pathways, big boulders, cascading plant beds, and steps, is now free of construction barriers.

Governor Kathy Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, Manhattan Borough head Mark Levine, and Google’s head of Americas and worldwide business, Sean Downey, were among the attendees at the ceremony.

“You’re going to take a property that for decades people just ignored or went past and never saw a future in. But you did,” said Governor Hochul. “That’s the genius of Google. Seeing possibilities where others are not able.”

After acquiring the building in December 2018, Google promised to quadruple its workforce in New York within the following ten years. Google currently employs more than 14,000 people full-time in the city, exceeding its objective in half the time.

More than 3,000 Google workers will be able to enjoy expansive views of the Hudson River to the west, the Midtown skyline to the north, and the Lower Manhattan skyline to the south from St. John’s Terminal.

The adaptive reuse of St. John’s Terminal, which Google claims prevented 78,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from a ground-up build of this size, was the first step in the company’s sustainable design of its headquarters. Additionally, 77% of the garbage generated during construction was kept out of landfills. The project is working toward LEED v4 Platinum Certification for its interiors after achieving LEED v4 Platinum Certification for its core and shell development.

Additional environmentally friendly elements include over 1.5 acres of vegetation with 95% native species to New York State, on-site solar arrays with an anticipated generation capacity of almost 100 kilowatts, and more than 500 bike parking places.

The C and E trains at Spring Street and the 1 train at Houston Street station are the closest subway stations to the property. Hudson River Park is located on the other side of West Street, and Canal Street leads southward to the Holland Tunnel.