Google is working on a $120 million expansion to their Mountain View headquarters that will include secret hardware testing labs and a museum-like facility known as the Google Experience Center. Construction crews have been working on the 800,000 square feet of renovations in recent months, according to a San Jose Mercury News report.
Google will be working on a consumer product under the brand “@home” in one of the new labs that is said to wirelessly stream music or data to other household devices. This corroborates a report from The Wall Street Journal last week that claimed Google is developing a home-entertainment system designed to stream music wirelessly throughout a home and marketed under Google’s own brand.
Other facilities, like the RF screen room, will be used to test the Wi-Fi performance and development of a new consumer product, according to Google real estate official Lewis Darrow. “Project X” currently occupies a space on Google’s campus that reportedly uses rare gases like argon and arcane optical-coating technology. Details on Project X remain a mystery but it is believed to be led by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
The Google Experience Center will be a 120,000 square foot facility described as a private museum for up to 900 of Google’s most important business partners. The museum-style layout will allow the company to easily swap “exhibits” to meet their needs at any current time. The center is being likened to similar customer demonstration facilities from Microsoft, Oracle and HP that showcase products to potential buyers and investors.
A timetable for the completion of these expansion projects at the Googleplex wasn’t mentioned in the article.
