Not content with all the futuristic pieces of technology that would make the minds of the greatest sci-fi writers collectively blown, the top tech companies in the world have been dedicating a tremendous amount of resources in constructing some out-of-this world landmarks. Besides Google and those barges being built off the coasts of San Fran and Portland, ME, Apple has been hard at work with a state-of-the-art campus.
The new Apple headquarters, aka ‘The Spaceship’, has been in development since 2011. However, the project has been picking up momentum as of late. Back on October 15, the city were the headquarters will be located, the City of Cupertino, gave the innovative building the green-light. There will be on more meeting on November 15, but it appears that the town is willing to allow the spaceship to invade Cupertino. Even more recent was an article over at Wired. The piece took an in-depth look into Apple’s massive undertaking of a campus along with 24 new images.
In case you weren’t aware of this project, we figured that we would get you caught up with all the buzz by presenting X things that you should know about Apple’s Spaceship Headquarter.
- The spaceship will be located in Cupertino, CA. The city is just west of San Jose and has a population of 58,302.
- The building was designed by famed British architect Sir Norman Foster of Foster + Partners.
- The building is being boasted as “one of the most environmentally sustainable projects on this scale anywhere in the world.” To make sure that this happens, Apple hired former Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson to oversee the project.
- Once completed, Apple hopes that the 176-acre site will be 80-percent landscape with 7,000 trees. This is being called “bringing California back to Cupertino”.
- The campus will be located near Apple’s Infinite Loop facility and will consolidate up to 14,200 of Apple’s engineers and support personnel into one location. This will be five times the number Apple employees who are in the current headquarters.
- Roughly 15% of the main building will be used for engineering and testing space.
- The Main Building will be a 2.8 million square ft. gross floor area with 60,000 sq. ft. dining area, 83,000 sq. ft. meeting area, and 260,000 sq. ft. of space dedicated towards mechanical rooms.
- Besides the Main Building, Apple will also be constructing a Corporate Fitness Center, Auditorium, a Central Plant and several office buildings.
- The custom-designed 1,000-seat auditorium will be used for events, such as product launches. The press will now meet at the underground auditorium as opposed to the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
- The doughnut-shape design of the building was chosen because “rectangles or squares or long buildings or buildings with more than four stories would inhibit collaboration,” according to Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer. The circular design could find employees beginning their day on one side and ending their day on the other side.
- According to Businessweek, the project’s budget is estimated at an outstanding $5 billion and growing.
- Since day one Apple co-founder Steve jobs was involved with the spaceship. He began buying land in the area in 2006. In 2009, Jobs gave architect Foster a call, which laid the groundwork for the project. Jobs was also hands-on during the early development of the campus.
- What did Steve Job know about architecture? He designed Pixar’s impressive campus, which has been open since 2000. In fact, in 2012, the company renamed its main building “The Steve Jobs Building” after the man who purchased Pixar from Lucasfilm in 1986.
What do you think about Apple’s new campus? Are you impressed by the spaceship? Or will this be a waste of $5 billion?
Featured Image Credit: Wikipedia
