For its expansion into San Jose, Google added this 25-acre area into its campus portfolio in 2019. Formerly home to Cisco, the site direly needed a complete refresh rather than typical campus improvements. So Groundworks Office challenged Google to consider an atypical landscape that strove to support a dense, robust ecology.
Through iterative testing, GWO selectively traded out the sprawl of parking spaces for a landscape that fostered a healthy work environment. Marking the crown jewel of this landscape experience is a shaded café terrace and commons, where people from different buildings and departments can meet.
The landscape supports tangles of new olives, brambles of gingkoes, and bosques of Carolina laurels as the new planting regime that replaces a dated, thirsty terrain. In the back, a secret fenced garden holds court for foosball, bocce, Ping-Pong, and quirky twirled seating. At Tasman, you will find a deep embrace of the natural materials and organic forms that represent California.