Apple Park

Apple Park is the corporate headquarters of Apple Inc., located at One Apple Park Way in Cupertino, California, United States. It was opened to employees in April 2017, while construction was still underway. Its research and development facilities are occupied by more than 2,000 people. It superseded the original headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop, which opened in 1993.

Its scale and circular design, by Norman Foster, have earned the structure a media nickname “the spaceship". Located on a suburban site totaling 175 acres (71 hectares), it houses more than 12,000 employees in one central four-story circular building of approximately 2,800,000 square feet (260,000 square meters). Apple co-founder Steve Jobs wanted the campus to look less like an office park and more like a nature refuge. Eighty percent of the site consists of green space planted with drought-resistant trees and plants indigenous to the Cupertino area, and the center courtyard of the main building features an artificial pond.

History

In April 2006, Apple's former CEO Steve Jobs announced to the city council of Cupertino that Apple had acquired nine contiguous properties to build a second campus, the Apple Campus 2. The idea for a new headquarters was conceived by Jobs and Apple's former chief designer Jony Ive. Ive was Apple's immediate choice to design the project, going on to work very closely together with Norman Foster across five years, designing every detail, from the glass panels to the elevator buttons.

Purchases of the needed properties were made through the company Hines Interests, which in at least some cases did not disclose the fact that Apple was the ultimate buyer; Phillips Mahaney, a partner with a local commercial real estate brokerage, noted that this is common practice in attempts to arrange the purchase of contiguous land made up of multiple parcels with separate owners, in order to keep costs from skyrocketing and not reveal the company's plans to competitors. Among the sellers of the properties were SummerHill Homes (a plot of 8 acres or 3.2 hectares) and Hewlett-Packard (three buildings of their campus in Cupertino).

Until April 2008, Apple had not sought the necessary permits to begin construction, so it was estimated that the project would not be ready in 2010 as originally proposed; however, the buildings on the site were held by Apple for its operations. In November 2010 the San Jose Mercury News revealed that Apple had bought an additional 98 acres (40 ha) no longer used by HP Inc., just north across Pruneridge Ave. This space had been the HP campus in Cupertino before it was relocated to Palo Alto.

On June 7, 2011, Jobs presented to Cupertino City Council details of the architectural design of the new buildings and their surroundings. He did not live to see construction begin, dying just under four months later.

On October 15, 2013, Cupertino City Council unanimously approved Apple's plans for the new campus after a six-hour debate. Shortly thereafter, demolition work began to prepare the site for construction.

On February 22, 2017, Apple announced the official name of the campus as "Apple Park", and the auditorium to be named "Steve Jobs Theater".

Originally expected to break ground in 2013 and open in 2015, the project was delayed and started in 2014. The campus opened for workers in April 2017, despite continued construction work. This was followed by the first event in the Steve Jobs Theater, which took place on September 12, 2017. Apple Park Visitor Center opened on September 17, 2017.

As a consequence of the presence of Apple Park in the area, surrounding streets have met with both increased tourism, along with rising real estate values of local housing, often drawing in Apple employees wanting to live near the workplace.

Location

Apple Park is located 1.2 miles east of the original Apple Campus. Apple has had a presence in Cupertino since 1977, which is why the company decided to build in the area rather than move to a cheaper, distant location. The campus is also next to a contaminated site under Superfund legislation with a groundwater plume.

Design and construction

Steve Jobs, in his final public appearance before his death in October 2011 was quoted as saying:

It's got a gorgeous courtyard in the middle, and a lot more. It's a circle, so it's curved all the way round. This is not the cheapest way to build something. Every pane of glass in the main building will be curved. We have a shot at building the best office building in the world. I really do think that architecture students will come here to see it.

Apple Park aerial view during construction in August 2016, north of (below) I-280. The original Apple Campus, located 1.2 miles westwards, is also shown on the top-right, south of I-280

The ring-shaped building, advertised as "a perfect circle," was not originally planned as such. The inner rim and outer rim on each floor are left open as walkways. There are eight buildings, separated by nine mini-atria. The campus is one mile (1.6 km) in circumference, with a diameter of 1,512 feet (461 m). The one circular building houses most employees. It is four stories above the ground and three stories underground. Apple created life-size mock-ups of all parts of the building to analyze any design issues.

The design hides the roads and parking spaces underground. The campus uses only glass for its walls and views of the inner courtyard as well as of the landscape facing the exterior of the building. Around 83,000 square feet (7,700 m²) of space is for meetings and breakout spaces in the building. The inner part of the circular building contains a 30-acre (12 ha) park featuring a pond, with fruit trees and winding pathways inspired by California fruit orchards.

Steve Jobs wanted no seam, gap, or paintbrush stroke visible for a clean fit and finish.

All interior wood used for furniture was harvested from a certain species of maple, with Apple working with construction companies from 19 countries for designs and materials.

A breathing, hollow concrete slab acts as floor, ceiling, and HVAC system. A total of 4,300 such slabs were used. Some of the slabs weigh 60,000 pounds (27 t).

Construction

During construction, the building's structure was started by DPR/Skanska, but they were removed from the job for undisclosed reasons. Rudolph and Sletten and Holder Construction completed the structure, envelope, and interior buildout. Truebeck Construction (then known as BNBTBuilders) worked on the exterior landscaping, Steve Jobs Theater, and the health and fitness center; McCarthy Building Companies built the parking garage; and Granite Construction performed road widening and utility work.

Costs

The land cost was estimated at $160 million. In 2011, the budget for Apple's Campus 2 was less than $3 billion. However, in 2013 the total cost was estimated to be closer to $5 billion.

Energy source

The campus is one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the world. In an April 2018 press release, Apple announced that it had switched to being powered entirely by renewable energy. The solar panels installed on the roof of the campus can generate 17 megawatts of power, sufficient to power 75% during peak daytime, and making it one of the biggest solar roofs of the world. The other 4 megawatts are generated onsite using Bloom Energy Server fuel cells, which are powered by biofuel or natural gas. The air flows freely between the inside and outside of the building, providing natural ventilation and obviating the need for HVAC systems during nine months of the year.

Grounds

Landscaping

80% of the campus consists of green space. The spacious courtyard in the middle of the primary building was planted with apricot, olive, and apple orchards, as well as a herb garden near the cafe. Other plants selected for the campus landscape are drought tolerant. Recycled water is used to water the campus.

In 2011, Apple hired an arborist, Dave Muffly, to cultivate California's natural environment around Apple Park. Apple's headhunters tracked down Muffly in 2010 after Jobs recognized the quality of the oak trees near the Stanford Dish and asked his people to find the arborist who was caring for them.

There are 9,000 trees on the Apple Park campus, of 309 varieties of indigenous species. The planted trees are Oak savanna, Oak wood, and fruit trees including apricot, apple, plum, cherry and persimmon. An additional 15 acres (6 ha) are used for a native California grassland. Among the apple varieties represented are Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Gravenstein, and Pink Lady, but the McIntosh is notably absent.

After he began work in earnest, Muffly realized that fewer than a hundred of the 4,000 existing trees were actually usable. This meant he had to procure from scratch almost all of the 9,000 planned trees. His team went so far as to search abandoned Christmas tree farms, and Apple actually bought one at Yermo in the Mojave Desert.

Historic barn

The land that Apple purchased for the campus came with an old barn that was built in 1916 by John Leonard using redwood planks. Leonard married into the Glendenning Family, who immigrated to the United States from Scotland and settled in the area in the 1850s. After Apple purchased the property, there were discussions between Apple, the Cupertino Historical Society, and the city of Cupertino as to the fate of the barn. The city's interest in the barn stemmed from its 2004 declaration as a historical site.

Eventually Apple agreed to keep the barn on the property, and is using it to "store maintenance tools and other landscaping materials". The barn was disassembled during the campus construction and then reassembled in a different location from where it was originally located.

Inner courtyard

The inner courtyard is 30 acres (12 ha), and lush with fruit trees alongside an artificial pond and a café. In the center, there is a rectangular field with several arches that resemble a rainbow when seen from a distance.

Criticism

The design of the Apple Park campus has been called the "ultimate example" of suburban office parks, which have been in decline as companies seek to relocate to urban areas with better transit, bicycle, and pedestrian access. Kaid Benfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a non-profit environmental advocacy group, criticized the proposed campus for contributing to existing suburban sprawl, with car-dependent features and waste of expensive real estate that could have been used for affordable housing.

The headquarters also gained unfavorable attention when it emerged in 2018 that two workers had been injured and required hospital treatment after walking into the building's clear glass walls and doors.

Apple has seen some criticism for the perceived extravagance of its new headquarters, as well as its perfectionist approach to its design and construction. The use of special wood as a construction material was reported to be the subject of a 30-page guideline. The design of door handles was reported to be the subject of a one and a half year debate, involving several revisions before the Apple management gave its approval. Apple's desire for custom signage put the company at odds with the Santa Clara County Fire Department, requiring several rounds of negotiations due to fears it could compromise safety in case of emergencies.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Apple Park" and modified on June 26, 2020 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.