Parts of the new Google Pittsburgh office are left deliberately unfinished, with exposed wires and pipes that look like the inside of a computer thrown up against the ceiling. But computer wires and hardware are what Google has translated into a fun -- and industry-leading -- user experience, so it's only appropriate they hover over beanbags and free beef jerky.

A healthy mix of awe and workplace envy were in store Tuesday at the open house for the search company's new digs in an old Nabisco factory at the redeveloped Bakery Square complex in Larimer. The site and its more than 150 workers place Pittsburgh in a top tier of satellite offices that includes the company's Boston and Waterloo, Ontario, sites.

The decision to essentially double Google's footprint in Pittsburgh has been interpreted as an arbiter for Pittsburgh's growing success in the tech sector, and the company's selection of Bakery Square was great news for that development.

Break out the champagne -- Google did.

Alongside the free drinks and sushi rolls celebrating Google's year-long move from Carnegie Mellon's campus were demos on projects unique to the regional site.

They include Google Sky, an application for Google Earth that turns the company's location-based services to the sky and tracks the stars. And Recaptcha, a CMU startup acquired by Google in 2009, will continue its work digitizing text at the new site.

Though the company's Pittsburgh presence has grown from two employees to more than 150 in the past four years, site director Andrew Moore said Google was still "recruiting extensively" for open positions in Pittsburgh. Job listings are available at www.google.com/jobs/ and include positions in engineering and product management.

Many employees at the Pittsburgh site grew up here and moved away, only to be lured back for work at the new site -- that's what Mr. Moore calls the "boomerang effect."

At this cutting-edge ribbon cutting, Google wasn't scared to show off why it might come back.

Google's employee benefits and workplace culture -- free Red Bull! staff masseuse! stock options! -- have become as well-known as the company's minimalist homepage.

At this office, "you never have the chance to forget you're at Google," said Jen Crowley, a recruiter-cum-tour guide at the Pittsburgh site.

Indeed, everything is colored in the primary hues that make up the Google logo, from the red chairs to the green walls to the red-yellow-green color-code system that rates the healthiness of each lunch option.

The Google ethos is all about the grad school environment, a "water cooler culture" that in the new site is repeated over and over again.

The space is filled with little nooks that come with beanbags and couches arranged in Feng-shui fabulous for conversation and collaboration. The space's most aggressively quirky meeting area is one-of-a-kind -- as ordered by corporate.

When the office designers wanted to mimic other Google sites and install a fire pole, top Googlers said "no" -- it was against the Google philosophy to simply replicate another's idea. The solution? A mesh net that hangs from the ceiling and serves as yet another meeting space. (No shoes allowed.)

There are homages to Pittsburgh: the Roberto Clemente meeting room, a Nabisco mixer lifted by crane onto the seventh floor, a Google T-shirt that replaces the two O's in the company name with the Smithfield Street bridge.

The city of Pittsburgh returned the love. Google's new site serves as an anchor for East Liberty's Bakery Square development, and Tuesday's event seemed as much a housewarming party for Google as a pat on the back to city officials who guided the complex's development.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said the long and oft-criticized process of the Bakery Square complex was "well worth it," saying that without such an appealing space for Google, "we wouldn't be here today."

And the engineers and employees at Google shouldn't expect that fascination to let up anytime soon -- even if the tech community isn't one used to the spotlight.

Readying herself for a camera shot on Tuesday, administrative assistant Cathy Serventi ran her fingers through her hair, brown with a shock of red. Looking at the camera, she realized, "I don't think my parents have seen my red hair."