325 Main is targeting LEED-NC Gold certification. The building's shape is conceived as a parallelogram, opening the space between the adjacent buildings and public areas. Articulating its massing, a series of inset “apertures” provide interest and balance, while creating outdoor terraces, , Pickard Chilton officials note.

Connecting 325 Main and the 355 Main St. building where Google currently has office space, a sloped “gasket” element will create a visual distinction between them while preserving the latter's architectural integrity. Upper floors along Main Street have been pulled away from 355 Main St. to distinguish the visual separation. A glass façade, comprising spandrel, frit and vision glass and metal panels, will articulate the building.

325 Main is Pickard Chilton's second project with Boston Properties in the Kendall Square neighborhood; the architecture firm designed 145 Broadway, a 19-story, 454,000-square-foot office building for Akamai that is opening in late 2019.

Pickard Chilton's recent completed projects include: the Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons in Milwaukee; River Point in Chicago; 1144 Fifteenth in Denver and Eaton House in Dublin, Ireland. Current projects include the Global Gateway Shinagawa and Y2 Projects in Tokyo; the Plieninger Straße 140 Development in Stuttgart, Germany; Norfolk Southern's new headquarters in Atlanta; Avocet Tower in Bethesda, MD; 2+U in Seattle and, Canal Place for Dominion Energy in Richmond, VA, as well as commercial and residential developments in Austin, Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, DC.

The Google expansion is just part of the high-tech, e-commerce growth taking place in the Cambridge-Boston market. Late last month, Amazon broke ground on its 17-story, 525,000-square-foot office building in the Seaport district of Boston.