YouTube Campus Expansion

Overview

Completed in June 2023 in San Bruno, California, the YouTube Campus Expansion is a LEED Platinum-certified, three-building development designed to positively impact the environment while creating an inspiring workspace for tech professionals.

At the owner's request, the design focused on enhancing the user experience, resulting in an aesthetically pleasing, biophilic, and sustainable space. The buildings are designed to maximize daylighting, and feature perforated, automatic exterior louvers that block direct sunlight during peak hours, reducing glare and solar heat gain. Each of the three buildings is constructed with a mass timber framework. The campus also boasts a 5.3-MWH battery microgrid and 1.4 MW solar panels, allowing the facility to operate off-grid for up to five hours daily. Additionally, an onsite 391,000-gallon rainwater cistern collects up to 1.3 million gallons of water annually.

Our Approach

Southland served as the Engineer of Record, completing the mechanical and plumbing design for the project. The scope of work included a remote all-electric 830-ton central utility plant (CUP), underground hydronic distribution, and 2 mass timber office buildings equipped with raised floor air distribution and overhead radiant heating and cooling. While the primary function of each building was office space, they also featured various amenities, including fitness areas, a large kitchen and cafeteria, a grab-and-go café, and four levels of underground parking. Due to the congested site conditions, the project schedule for the interior build-out was compressed, requiring extensive offsite prefabrication and modular assembly.

Result 

Completed in June 2023, the all-electric campus incorporates sustainably sourced mass timber and other low-carbon materials, collectively reducing the buildings' embodied carbon emissions by an estimated 22,000 metric tons.