Where Google Fiber chose to put their Charlotte office was a surprise: they re-imagined the typical high-tech office space by repurposing a more than 100-year-old historic post and beam building. Guess who was chosen to restore the historic reclaimed beams?
That’s right: Google hired Carolina Timberworks to restore the reclaimed wood beams of the Philip Carey Building and create a unique space for Charlotte’s Google Fiber office. Rather than joining the race to build the tallest skyscraper, Google opted to stand out from the crowd by renovating this distinctive brick warehouse, a historic highlight amidst downtown Charlotte’s contemporary cityscape.
Google understands its footprint on the environment, an issue that’s always on our minds here at Carolina Timberworks. Did you know that renovating an old building like this releases 50 to 75 percent less carbon than building a new one from the ground up? We’re all for sustainable timber framing!
Above all, Google wanted our team to develop an office space worthy of Google Fiber’s mission to deliver high-speed internet to Charlotte and beyond. Google prioritizes speed and ambition – and they expected the same from our team. Critical deadlines? Not a problem: we do what we say we’re going to do when we say we’re going to do it.
Of course, our reliability wasn’t the only reason Google contracted Carolina Timberworks for the Fiber project. Our experience using reclaimed wood for structural timber framing sealed the deal.
After all, the average timber frame company doesn’t work with reclaimed wood at all. Those that do usually focus on decorative timber framing due to the challenges of structural timber framing with reclaimed wood. One wrong move can waste a lot of materials and labor, setting back a project significantly. Our team’s skill, experience, and background in structural timber framing ensured that we could deliver this project on time for Google.
After meeting with the general contractor (Pepper Construction Company) and the owner’s rep, they looked at each other and said, “I think we’ve found our timber frame company.” We couldn’t agree more, and we were happy to partner with Lineberry Architectural Group, who produced the drawings.
Carolina Timberworks is proud to add the Google Fiber Charlotte building to our growing portfolio of once-in-a-lifetime projects we’ve worked on across the United States.