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In February, Google unmasked a blueprint for a massive expansion of its mothership — four futuristic, eco-friendly campus sites, designed by star architects “to blur,” in Google’s words, “the distinction between our buildings and nature.”
Last night, the Mountain View city council put the kibosh on that plan.
By a 4-3 vote, the council approved just one site for Google, stretching 515,000 square feet. It gave the bulk of available real estate — two-thirds of 2.2 million square feet — to LinkedIn. Silicon Valley Business Journal has the (lengthy) deets. David Radcliffe, Google’s chief of real estate, reportedly protested to the city council: “I’m not sure how I make any of this economically viable with one building.”
Google’s proposal was in line with its broader energy-efficiency ambitions. But it also met with skepticism in Mountain View, which has seen housing prices rise and jobs decline as Google has grown. With its new campus, Google pledged to add “lots of bike paths and retail opportunities, like restaurants, for local businesses.”
LinkedIn offered this statement: “We are pleased with the city council’s decision to allow LinkedIn to build a permanent headquarters in Mountain View that will also create a sustainable mixed-use community destination while preserving economic diversity.” Google did not return requests for comment.
You can find Google’s many renderings for its plans from February here.
Update: Google’s Radcliffe sent this over: “We know the City Council had a tough decision to make last night and thank them and our community for more than six hours of debate. We’re pleased Council has decided to advance our Landings site and will continue to work with the city on Google’s future in Mountain View.”
Additional reporting by Kurt Wagner.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
