Google’s repurposed Spruce Goose nears completion in Playa Vista

Google is wrapping up the transformation of the Spruce Goose, a giant hangar formerly owned by Howard Hughes that will be the tech firm’s new Silicon Beach headquarters.

Google is building a three-story steel structure into the interior of the 319,000-square-foot hangar in Playa Vista. Urbanize first reported the construction update.

ZGF Architects, based in Portland, Oregon, is designing the project, which also involves installing new windows and skylights.

It was Google’s purchase in 2014 of 12 acres of vacant land that wraps around the hangar that helped spur the development of Playa Vista into the center of L.A.’s Silicon Beach.

The Mountainview-based tech behemoth’s led several other Silicon Valley giants, including Facebook and Yahoo, to scoop up hundreds of thousands square feet of office space there. Facebook is close to leasing 260,000 square feet at the Brickyard office campus, which is a short walk from Spruce Goose.

Spruce Goose is in the middle of a private airport formerly owned by Howard Hughes Corporation. After Hughes pulled out of the location in the 1970s, it was used as a film location for Hollywood.

Google leases the facility from ASO Group, a Japanese conglomerate, which bought the hangar and three surrounding buildings at 5865 South Campus Center in December 2016 from a partnership between the Ratkovich Company and Penwood Real Estate Investment Management for $273 million.

The tech company has plenty of space to stretch out. Google is approved to build up to 900,000 square feet of offices on its property surrounding the hangar. [Urbanize] — Alexei Barrionuevo