Working at Google means having a real sweet office. (We swear that's not us with binoculars outside the Chicago office). The tech giant's director of real estate, Americas, Jim Laumann was the featured speaker at last week's CoreNet Global Chicago luncheon. Jim says Google has been a hermit crab, taking over existing spaces and shells around the world to develop some "Googley" offices. Yes, he used that word, which apparently means open, transparent, highly collaborative, and designed for density. Google generally allows 200 SF to 220 SF of rentable space per person and 165 usable SF per person, Jim says. Pictured: Studley's Tony Smaniotto, Jim, Wright Heerema Architects' Margie Kurkowski, and Leopardo Cos' Dan Ulbricht.

With unique amenities like bikes around campus, communal gardens, and fireman's poles instead of stairs, each Google office is designed with communal diversity and sustainability in mind. Jim has been coming to Chicago every other week to work on anew,nearly 600k SF spacefor Motorola (now a part of Google)in the Merchandise Mart. Construction will finish in June, commissioning will end in December, and Moto employees will move in March 2014, he says. The inside scoop: Google's "pet clause," allowing furry friends in the office, was written into the Moto lease and they plan to replace some air handlers in the elderly Mart on a quest for LEED superstardom.