Google Venice to Open Thursday Evening

Venice will soon be feeling the effects of its biggest, newest tenant.

On Thursday evening, Google opens its offices in Frank Gehry's Binoculars Building at 340 Main St., where the company has leased 100,000 square feet in three buildings.

The company leased the new space primarily to create a "campus-like feel" for its Los Angeles offices, Google spokesperson Jordan Newman. "But, obviously, this building is pretty cool."

The new location will consolidate three Google offices that were previously located in Santa Monica and is expected to house more than 500 employees. 

About 3/4 of the employees will be in engineering, with the remaining people in sales, Newman told Patch. 

A solid presence in the Los Angeles area is important to the company, he said. Google has been recruiting heavily from local universities, such as UCLA and USC, and Los Angeles is the home base for many of the large media companies Google's sales team deals with.

In October, the Google Venice office director, Thomas Williams, presented the company's plans to the Venice Neighborhood Council. A synopsis of William's discussion on how Google will affect the local area, including statistics on the number of people who won't be driving to work and potential expansion plans can be found .

Pictures and details from the opening event Thursday evening will be on Venice Patch on Friday.

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