黑洞社区

Lendlease has been confirmed as the contractor to build Google鈥檚 拢650m new London headquarters.

黑洞社区 revealed the contractor was in line to build the tech giant鈥檚 King鈥檚 Cross home in January.

Google鈥檚 new UK headquarters has been redesigned by US-Danish architect BIG and Heatherwick Studio after Google decided to redraw its plans for the site. The executive architect is BDP. The job has an estimated construction cost of 拢350m.

AHMM originally won the project four years ago but it was formally confirmed last spring that the practise was off the job.

The original AHMM-designed scheme was going to be built by Bam, but it is understood the contractor decided not to pitch this time around.

BIG and Heatherwick also designed Google鈥檚 planned new global headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The 330m-long 10-storey groundscraper at King鈥檚 Cross will cover 650,000sq ft of office space at what will be Google鈥檚 third building at developer Argent鈥檚 67-acre regeneration scheme.

The firm currently occupies 380,000ft2 at the completed 6 Pancras Square and construction on a second building which the firm is leasing located further back at the King鈥檚 Cross site is due to be completed by Carillion in 2018.

Google will eventually be able to house 7,000 people across the three buildings totalling 1 million ft2.

Lendlease, which is currently developing and building the large south London residential scheme Elephant & Castle residential, along with the International Quarter in Stratford, which will be home to Transport for London and the Financial Conduct Authority.

Joe Borrett, Google鈥檚 EMEA director of real estate and construction, said: 鈥淟endlease emerged from a rigorous selection process as the best choice as our construction partner at King鈥檚 Cross because we felt it shared many of our own values; a desire to challenge industry norms, a focus on innovation, and a highly collaborative approach.鈥�

Neil Martin, manging director of Lendlease鈥檚 Construction business in Europe, said: 鈥淲e are absolutely delighted to be appointed by Google on this landmark project. With our global construction experience, we are confident this will be as distinctive as everything else Google does.鈥�

Lendlease is also understood to be in line to build Singaporean investor UOL Group鈥檚 拢500m 43-storey Square Mile hotel and is and is believed to be one of two bidders, along with Sir Robert McAlpine to redevelop the former army barracks in St John鈥檚 Wood, north London, for Malaysian businessman Ananda Krinshnan鈥檚 Usaha Tegas Group.