Apple Park is Apple Inc corporate headquarters. The construction that was underway is not completed. Its circular design has earned the nickname of a spaceship. It was the dream of Steve Jobs who wished the entire campus to appear as a nature refuge and not an office park. This is one of the reasons that eighty percent has green space with plants and trees that are drought-resistant, while the courtyard at the center of the main building has an artificial pond.
History
Steve Jobs first announced in 2006, that Apple had bought nine contiguous properties in the city council of Cupertino to build Apple Campus, a second campus.
Steve Jobs in the year 2011 presented the architectural design details to the Cupertino city council referring to the new building and in 2013 received approval for Apple campus to initiate construction.
Earlier it was anticipated in 2013 to break ground and in 2015 to open. However, there were delays and it started in 2014 and the campus could be opened only in April 2017, though the construction work went without a halt.
Apple announced on February 22, 2017, the campus official name to be ‘Apple Park’ and named the auditorium as ‘Steve Jobs Theater’. Honoring his enduring influence and memory on Apple, the theatre is named after him. This is a 1000 seat auditorium situated on the hilltop and is within Apple Park at the highest point overlooking the main building and meadows.
The new Apple Park will house a visitor’s center featuring a café and an Apple Store open to the public.
Visitors Gallery
There are new facilities in the visitors’ gallery. There is exclusive merchandise in the company store at the visitor center and this merchandise will not be available in any other location. The things you can buy on visiting this new campus include:
- Same as any Apple normal store, the visitor center has regular iPhones, Macs, iPads, and Apple watches for sale. There is wall-length display on the store side.
- Apple Parks provides two different designs t-shirt in a variety of colors. The company claims it cannot be replicated exactly. The t-shirt features the campus building as Apple Park illustration and the other one features Apple logo. Younger visitors have onesies and the t-shirts are at $40, while the onesies are for $20.
- Tote bags are also for sale at Apple Park Spaceship and are available for $25 in white, black and gray colors. Apple Park hats are for $40 and come in same three colors.
- Three sets of postcard collections designed by Apple in California is for $20 each, while memory cards set are for $10.
Cafes
There is Macs, a mini cafe open in the new visitor center to the public offering tea and coffee drinks, with chocolate and snacks treat. The impressive facility is the Apple Park aluminum model designed for augmented reality.
You can use custom iPads and view in AR and see it jumps to life. The surfaces are filled with lights, vegetation and campus facts offering a closer look.
There are seven cafes in the campus. The largest is a café of three-level that sits 3,000 people. It features glass railing, stone-lining in light-color and is enveloped by extensive landscaping.
The mezzanine space accommodates 600 people and there are 1750 seats outside on terraces featuring a capacity of serving 15,000 lunches daily. The 500 tables are made of white oak.
The benches and sports tables resemble the Apple Stores. The three-level restaurant have large doors in 92 ft and the café landscaped grassy areas extends beyond the glass walls and there is al fresco dining area offered called the glade.
Power supply
Apple states renewable energy is the main source of energy for the entire complex and the entire site is highly energy efficient building. The solar panels are on the campus roof and it can generate power of 17 megawatts that is enough for peak daytime to power 75% of the Park.
The other 4 megawatts are produced by the Bloom energy saver fuel cells that are biofuel or natural gas powered. There is natural ventilation with air flowing freely and so the HVAC systems are obviated for almost nine months every year.
Additionally, Apple has put 7000 trees surrounding the campus and a leading arborist is being hired from Stanford University to help the landscape and to restore the indigenous plant life, besides the apricot orchards.
Wellness Center
To the campus, northwest is the wellness center in a 100,000 square foot. It serves for 20,000 employees and besides the regular gym equipment, there are other amenities such as laundry services, showers, changing rooms and group sessions rooms.
Auditorium
The auditorium is known officially as the Steve Jobs Theater and is located on the campus hilltop. This is a 1000 seat auditorium and is build for the press meets and launches for Apple product.
This auditorium features a lobby in the cylinder shape with stairs down to the auditorium. There are 350 parking spaces at the theater on North Tantau and a pedestrian path leading to the campus. The lobby of the theater has no support columns featuring glass walls cylindrical shaped. It offers 360-degree campus view unhindered. It features carbon fiber roof and the theater has a high glass elevator rotating 171 degrees from bottom to the top lobby level. This elevator has chemically tempered glass and is the freestanding tallest glass elevator in the world.
This theater had its first press event on September 12, 2017, where it announced iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, Apple watch series 3, iPhone X and Apple TV 4K.
Apple Park cost
The estimate originally was to cost half a billion dollars, while $160 million was the cost of land alone. The new spaceship-like ballooned headquarters budget reached in 2011 to $3 billion and by 2013 to $5 billion.
Apple is prominent for its demands with respect to design and materials, but the costs spiraling have caused controversy. The shareholders in 2013 labeled it as extravagant. Eventually, $5bn was the final spend in this huge outlay.
Security
Apple always takes security seriously. The new campus will have the highest security and privacy will be maintained for the invention of the new product by eliminating public access through the site, while the perimeters will be protected from trespassers.
The new Apple campus will keep access to the public very limited and even the staff members cannot access the new building all areas.
Apple Park Interesting facts:
- Apple Park Theater will conduct the Apple event on the 62 birthday of Steve Jobs in his memory.
- The glass ringed building will feature plenty of open seating areas for the employees to meet. It is expected this spaceship building will accommodate around 13000 employees.
- The Apple Park 5 million square feet has grassy fields replacing asphalt and concrete and there are more than 9000 drought-resistant trees.
- The structure is such that it can move 4 and ½ feet up horizontally in case there is an earthquake situation. The foundation will disconnect the frame from the earth working as a gyroscope.
- The Parklands are two miles of running and walking paths, a meadow, an orchard, and pond.
- Apple will make use of recycled water to keep the campus looking green.
- It is expected over 157,000 gallons of water will flow daily to the campus and it will be used for cooling towers, landscaping and plumbing.
- There will be on site 1000 bikes to get employees around the campus.
- Jogging and cycling trails for miles are across the campus 176-acre.
- There will be underground onsite parking offering more natural landscaping space. There is on-site ground parking as well. Totally, there will be over 10,980 parking spaces.
- The parking locations will have electric vehicle charging station around 300 on campus right now and more space is left to add more.