Massive New Apple Headquarters Takes Over Silicon Valley
Six years after a frail Steve Jobs approached the Cupertino City Council proposing his idea to build a massive Apple headquarters; his plan has come to fruition. The spaceship shaped, circular command center has completed construction and started welcoming employees last month. Essentially Jobs’ final project, the Silicon Valley campus was his ideal working conditions and environment. Holding 12,000 employees meant it could house the Apple team together and not result in relocating employees out of Cupertino and Silicon Valley.
The $5 billion Park stretches over 175 acres of land and incorporates nature into the work space. The goal was to create a work culture that was immersed in outdoors and would encourage brainstorming and innovation. The ring shape gives the campus its natural ventilation system (no air conditioning) and the mini forest surrounding it is made up of over 9,000 trees. The architecture of the futuristic office (if you can even call it something as elementary as that) is even made to survive environmental disasters like earthquakes and droughts. In addition, there are over 805,000 square feet of solar panels that make the campus entirely run on sustainable energy.
Early rendering of Steve Job’s vision for Apple Park.
Of course the building also has its amenities for employees outside of the environmental perks. Behind the four story glass doors are a 100,000 square foot fitness center, two story stone yoga room, the Steve Jobs Theater (which seats 1,000), and an underground parking facility at the end of a 755 feet of white tiled tunnel. Notably missing: a childcare center. Despite lacking this feature, everything else about Apple Park has Jobs’ meticulous attention to detail. The wood for the walls had to be a specific type of timber – cut in the right month, able to sustain drought, has the least about of sap, etc. The trees were hand picked by Steve and reviewed with renowned arborists. The glass had to be pure and plentiful. The entire structure is curved glass panels including the massive doors.
Thousands of trees were planted on the headquarter’s grounds.
Although Apple’s new campus opened five years after Jobs’ death, his influence and contributions are within every inch of the structure. With the intricate and colossal planning and construction, the Apple mother ship should survive much longer after Jobs – perhaps (as he envisioned) centuries.
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