Google executes a Silicon Valley land swap, Washington D.C. clears final hurdle for Walter Reed redevelopment, South Boston’s ‘innovation’ boom and more

From New York’s August Issue: Mountain View, California

In what has been billed as a mutually beneficial bargain between two tech giants, Google and LinkedIn have brokered a cash-free real estate deal that will pave the way for their respective Silicon Valley expansions. As part of a massive land swap, Google will receive LinkedIn’s 370,000-square-foot headquarters and almost eight acres of land in Mountain View, a city 40 miles south of San Francisco, according to Ars Technica, a tech news website. In return, LinkedIn will get seven buildings from Google in Mountain View and the neighboring city of Sunnyvale. The deal will allow Google to move forward with its much-talked-about, state-of-the-art headquarters designed by Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick. LinkedIn also has plans for a new corporate campus, which will allow it to consolidate all 3,700 of its Silicon Valley employees. Not everyone is delighted with the behemoths’ expansion plans, however. Over the years, Google’s growth has led to clashes with Mountain View residents displeased by soaring housing costs and increased traffic congestion. As a result, the city is currently studying a plan to build 10,000 housing units in the area, Bloomberg reported. [more]