To Anonymous:
Our editors appreciate our readers’ letters, including the “Defense of Google” letter from Anonymous (Feb. 2019 issue), regarding the January 2019 article “Why Do Google and Hi-Tech Firms Expand in the Lower Westside?”
Through your letter, we learned much about Google employment and their interior spaces and programs, beyond what could be covered in our short article.
However, nowhere in the article does it say “Google employees work online and on the phone and therefore don’t need a large office space” nor do we express the “sentiment” of criticism “that is totally out of touch.” Perhaps however, it was an opportunity for the Alphabet PR mechanism to grind out another piece?
Recently, and not previously reported here, Google has leased 280,000 SF at 315 Hudson Street, a former printing industry loft between Spring and Vandam Streets opposite Hudson from the new Disney HQ site, and another 180,000 SF at 345 Hudson Street, an older loft building between Charlton and King Streets. Perhaps these are place-holders until the 550 Washington Street offices are ready for move-in, or maybe they will be kept for further growth? Despite Amazon’s withdrawal from NYC, tech will continue to be a growth industry here in NY.
—Brian J. Pape, AIA
