Google at St. John’s Terminal is a 1.3 million-square-foot, 12-story workplace in Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighborhood. It serves as the North American headquarters for Google’s Global Business Organization and provides a purpose-built home for more than 3,000 Googlers, clients, and visitors.

Instead of assigning every employee an individual desk, Google assigns each team a neighborhood that acts as its home base. More than 60 neighborhoods combine desks, communal tables, meeting rooms, and phone booths, while shared lounges, cafés, gardens, terraces, and library settings give people additional choice throughout the day.

Gensler served as lead interior architect and designer, bringing together workplace strategy, interiors, brand design, connected experiences, and climate-action expertise. COOKFOX served as core and shell architect for the adaptive reuse and overbuild, with Oxford Properties developing the building for Google.

Adaptive reuse of the terminal’s structure and foundation is projected to avoid approximately 78,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. The interiors achieved LEED v4 Platinum and are targeting ILFI Zero Carbon Certification. Across the site, 1.5 acres of vegetation—including rail-bed gardens and terraces planted predominantly with native New York species—support human well-being and local bird habitat.