- Google is known for its quirky office culture and offices that encourage collaboration with large open spaces.
- The company has converted a number of unusual spaces into offices, including a former airplane hangar, a former vodka factory, and two former Nabisco factories.
- Here are some of Google's most interesting office conversions.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Google started in a garage, but now its employees work in some of the most unusual offices in all of tech.
The company seems to have a knack for seeing potential in old warehouses, factories, or storage facilities, even if they've been sitting empty for years.
In many cases, architects keep the structure of the building, and add windows and skylights to let in light while knocking down walls and making an open space. Modern architecture gets a classic feel from the original features that remain, and Google offices often keep some signs or pieces that reflect the building's earlier uses.
While this isn't to say every Google office is in a gigantic, renovated factory, the company does have several buildings that are on their second or third lives, with interesting histories. Here are a few of them.
1. Google's new LA office is a restored World War II-era hangar that once held the famed Spruce Goose plane.
Source: Business Insider
2. The company's Pittsburgh office is located in an old Nabisco factory, and it reportedly has a bakery themed room in a nod to the building's history.
Source: Business Insider, GeekWire
3. Google must have a thing for cookies. The company's Chelsea Market office in New York City is also located in a former Nabisco factory.
Source: Business Insider
4. Google also signed a lease on a former candy factory in Hudson Square in NYC. It hopes to open the office in 2020.
5. Google Zurich sits inside an old brewery, just steps away from Lake Zurich.
Source: Business Insider
6. Google Madrid is located in a former electrical storage battery factory first constructed in 1892.
Source: Office Snapshots
7. In Warsaw, Poland, Google has a co-working space open to tech innovators from eastern and central Europe. The 27,000 square foot office was converted from a 19th-century vodka factory, and the designers kept some memorabilia from the building's history.
Source: Office Snapshots
8. Google's Chicago office was once a cold storage facility with no windows, and the renovation included adding lots of natural light.
Source: Living Future
9. The company's Paris office is located in the old headquarters of a railroad company — a 107,000 square foot space.
Source: The New York Times