diff --git a/src/tcmalloc.cc b/src/tcmalloc.cc
index 39e515a..dcb9460 100644
--- a/src/tcmalloc.cc
+++ b/src/tcmalloc.cc
@@ -1097,11 +1097,6 @@ size_t TCMallocImplementation::GetEstimatedAllocatedSize(size_t size) {
   return tc_nallocx(size, 0);
 }
 
-static union {
-  char chars[sizeof(TCMallocImplementation)];
-  void *ptr;
-} tcmallocimplementation_implementation_space;
-
 // The constructor allocates an object to ensure that initialization
 // runs before main(), and therefore we do not have a chance to become
 // multi-threaded before initialization.  We also create the TSD key
@@ -1129,7 +1124,12 @@ TCMallocGuard::TCMallocGuard() {
     if (RunningOnValgrind()) {
       // Let Valgrind uses its own malloc (so don't register our extension).
     } else {
-      MallocExtension::Register(new (tcmallocimplementation_implementation_space.chars) TCMallocImplementation());
+      static union {
+        char chars[sizeof(TCMallocImplementation)];
+        void *ptr;
+      } tcmallocimplementation_space;
+
+      MallocExtension::Register(new (tcmallocimplementation_space.chars) TCMallocImplementation());
     }
 #endif
   }