As the media salivated Friday over Google s unveiling of space-age campus expansion plans, Microsoft had already quietly submitted its own big office development project to Mountain View City Hall.
Renderings of Microsoft s plans shown to us on Friday illustrate a far more conventional and modest project than what Google has in store a few blocks away. The tech rivals have been neighbors for more than 15 years in Mountain View s North Bayshore office district.
Of Microsoft s five current buildings between La Avenida Street and Highway 101, three will be torn down and two will be renovated. Microsoft will then erect a brand-new 5-story structure, plus three smaller link buildings to connect the campus around a courtyard. Its stated goal is to create a cohesive, vibrant campus that will enhance our presence in Mountain View, believed to be its largest tech workplace outside its corporate headquarters in Redmond, Wash. The plans call for adding about 128,000 square feet of office space to the 515,000 the company already occupies.
There are a few reasons why Mountain View leaders might like this. Microsoft wants to build a multistory parking garage, pull out most of its surface parking lots, and use the extra space to restore the native habitat of adjacent Stevens Creek. Unlike office development projects submitted Friday by Google, LinkedIn and three other developers, Microsoft s plans also don t seek exemptions from the city s new plan for North Bayshore development.
