The St. John's Terminal project adapted and expanded the 1934 rail facility into a flexible, biophilic workplace for 3,000 Googlers and their visitors. It is projected to save the equivalent of approximately 78,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions through adaptive reuse, and it received LEED v4 Platinum certification, exemplifying how repurposing an existing building can be a tool for activating its surroundings in a sustainable way. The original St. John’s Terminal was the terminus of the New York Central Railroad West Side Improvement project, an elevated railway now known as the High Line. By preserving and revealing this large-scale historical infrastructure in the design, the building is rooted in New York’s industrial history. The southern portion of the structure has been restored, while the northern part that spanned over Houston Street was removed to restore a long-lost connection to the Hudson River waterfront, dramatically reimagining the site’s relationship to its surrounding neighborhood.
