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Apple Inc. HQ: Think Different

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)


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Futuristic "Apple City" Planned for Cupertino



Paul Daniel Ash
MMi Staff Writer

Apple has been working secretly with the world-renowned designer of the Hong Kong International Airport on the design of its new campus in Cupertino, according to a business publication in Spain. El Economista [googletrans] profiles "Apple City," which has been designed by Norman Foster - who also worked on the design of all-solar Masdar City in Abu Dhabi - to be at the cutting edge of energy efficiency and sustainability, and will feature a network of tunnels underground instead of roads connecting the buildings.

The design process has reportedly been going on for months, but Apple just bought a disused 98-acre parcel of land from Hewlett-Packard for the new Apple City, right next to 50 acres the company bought back in 2006. The company is outgrowing its current headquarters at One Infinite Loop, Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told the San Jose Mercury News, saying "we now occupy 57 buildings in Cupertino and our campus is bursting at the seams." The acquisition of the new plot of land will allow the project to go forward.

Apple City reportedly takes a lot of elements from the Foster + Partners design of Masdar City, which is being built from the ground up to be carbon-neutral and zero waste, with no cars allowed inside the city walls and personal rapid transit "pods" to take everyone around. Apple City will also be car-free, with all buildings connected by tunnels. In addition to giving employees an easier way around the 146-acre campus, which is split by Pruneridge Avenue and Interstate 280, the tunnels will also eliminate all roads and parking lots on the surface. "The buildings which will house the engineers and R&D will also be multifunctional and will incorporate cutting-edge technology in materials and equipment as well as renewable energy resources," El Economista's report says.


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#93 ·
Approved!

[URL="http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/morning_call/2013/10/cupertino-council-approves-apple.html']Cupertino Council Approves Apple Spaceship Campus[/URL]

The Cupertino City Council on Tuesday night voted to give the go-ahead to Apple Inc.'s plan to build a 2.8-million-square-foot campus in the city.

The Mercury News reports the council voted unanimously for the proposal in a standing-room-only meeting packed with several hundred Apple employees.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has agreed to fund a number of roadway-improvement projects to help alleviate traffic congestion the campus may create.

The round spaceship-like campus could house as many as 14,200 employees.
 
#97 · (Edited)
I believe that A) increasing costs of Chinese/human labor and B) improved robotics & automation will make most labor moot anyhow but located within the US. Watch the Apple Mac Pro 'making of' video and you can see the process is incredibly automated. http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/video/#assembly The plant shown is in Texas and Apple spent $100 million opening it. They also spent $500 million opening a plant in Brazil, $2billion in Sharp in Japan, and countless billions in Foxconn and more in China. Still a nice PR gesture I guess.
 
#98 ·
^^Given the thread on what a new gaming box will cost in Brazil, I can certainly see why Apple would want to make computers there (in order to be able to sell them there for a reasonable price, which is, of course, the purpose of the Brazilian law).

Everything about manufacturing of everything is going to get more automated--which is why, I am becoming convinced, we "still" have 7.2% unemployment 5 years after the recession began. And that's going to be true in the US, Brazil and in China although the higher the labor costs, the more sense it makes to spend money on robots.

The Mac Pro is a low volume, high margin device and, as such Apple can afford to cut its margins by making it in the US as a symbolic act. And the fact that much of the work is robotic doesn't hurt either. But I repeat that it's a start and shows what they intend to show: They want to do the right thing and understand what it is.

Even if they wanted to make their high volume equipment in the US, and were willing to sacrifice margins to do it, they probably couldn't come up with the masses of human "robots" need to do the work as it is currently done in China. That will have to await further mechanization of the process.
 
#107 ·
I'm freaked-out. Doesn't that place just scream "prison"?
Isn't that the point of all these Silicon Valley campuses? They give you free food, massages, and a recliner in your cubicle so you'll work 50+ hours a week without complaining.

The best coder I've ever known (the moderately famous fwiles) once noted that when Google was trying to recruit him they spent half a day giving him a tour of their amenities when it suddenly hit him that they had all these things because they would never want him to go home.
 
#110 ·
Nice shot! I drive by there from time to time and it's easy to see the work on the other side of 280, along Steven's Creek, Tantau and Vallco Pkwy. But the north side of 280 is pretty well hidden by fencing.

I'm wondering how many shuttles are going to be needed from the Sunnyvale (Lawrence?) stations.
 
#114 ·
Interesting. A few months ago that was pretty much all 40 year-old HP buildings. Some Siemens and Tandem (later HP) buildings are also gone just off the edge toward the south.

Just across the freeway Apple has put up a striking blue glass building, right next to the massive "Main St. Cupertino" project, abutting Vallco.
 
#115 ·
Seven New Tech Campuses Changing the Face of Silicon Valley



Apple HQ

British Starchitect Norman Foster is designing Apple's new 2.8M square foot campus. The ring-shaped building will only cover 13% of the 176 acre site in the heart of Cupertino. The campus will be flooded with natural light and surrounded by lush parkland. Construction workers are in the process of clearing the massive site in preparation for construction.

No doubt the site development process will take many more months!
 
#116 ·
In theory, they will be done with the building in 2 1/2 years. Some rather spectacular facts:

- 2.8M sq. ft. in the main building; maybe another million in surrounding buildings
- the main building has more office space than the Empire State Building; room for 14,000 workers
- it will employ 9200 people during its construction, more than Oracle has in the Bay Area;
- 49ers Stadium could fit inside the circle of the building; for that matter, the much-larger Cowboys Stadium could fit in there
- NO flat glass anywhere; the curved glass is made by the firm that does Frank Gehry’s work (the Disney, Dancing House, Guggenheim, etc.)
- the largest base-isolated building in the world; highest earthquake specs of any building ever built
- 7000 trees; huge parkland; almost no surface parking
- don’t even ask about how many pizzas, samosas and lattes in an average day.
 
#117 ·
In theory, they will be done with the building in 2 1/2 years. Some rather spectacular facts:

- 2.8M sq. ft. in the main building; maybe another million in surrounding buildings
- the main building has more office space than the Empire State Building; room for 14,000 workers
- it will employ 9200 people during its construction, more than Oracle has in the Bay Area;
- 49ers Stadium could fit inside the circle of the building; for that matter, the much-larger Cowboys Stadium could fit in there
- NO flat glass anywhere; the curved glass is made by the firm that does Frank Gehry’s work (the Disney, Dancing House, Guggenheim, etc.)
- the largest base-isolated building in the world; highest earthquake specs of any building ever built
- 7000 trees; huge parkland; almost no surface parking
- don’t even ask about how many pizzas, samosas and lattes in an average day.

I guess I found out the name of the Company who's building the fassade:
http://josef-gartner.permasteelisagroup.com/project-gallery/168
this is also a Ghery's Building I think...
 
#120 ·
Nice shot. Just for clarification, north is toward the lower left. It's obvious where the spaceship goes and across Pruneridge is where most of the other structures go.

The buildings to the upper left are largely other Apple buildings.

To the lower right is a large Asian shopping (mostly restaurant) center and some hotels.

You can barely see 280 to the upper right (white with trees), and just beyond that are the two new "blue oval" buildings and the large Main St. Cupertino development.
 
#122 ·
Very nice. So it looks like a few buildings right on Tantau and at 280 will remain for Apple's use and as construction centers. Otherwise, it looks like everything is cleared and graded. I would guess that that much grading in curves takes some time.

Quick work considering what was there a couple of weeks ago.
 
#126 ·
Also posted under "Santa Clara County". This is abutting Apple buildings on the south side of 280, and the proposed redevelopment is largely in response to the expected 10k plus Apple employees soon to be working nearby.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/...all-vallco-may-be-best-hope-for.html?page=all

A lengthy recent history of Vallco. The big news is that it looks like Peter Pau may have beaten out Apple and the Santana Row people in buying Vallco. This would be about 64 acres (including land within the mall owned by Macy’s, etc.) immediately across the freeway from Apple’s Campus 2. Pau is also busily putting up Main St. Cupertino about 100 yds. to the east, stretching all the way to Tantau).

The prevailing view seems to be tear it down, although the department stores have to be dealt with. The mayor seems on-board to change zoning to mixed office, retail and housing. Given the money in Cupertino, I would assume some number of pricey condos.
 
#128 ·
Interesting that they are leasing for 7-10 years, when the Spaceship and surrounding properties will be done in 4. I guess the worst that can happen is that they have extra space for 3-5 years.

Speaking very loosely, it seems like the play-out of the prediction from 5 years ago that the big players would expand and become full-service IT companies, each with h/w, s/w, internet, social media, mobile, and wide-ranging service capabilities. Google and Apple are moving most clearly with HP, Oracle and Microsoft doing less at the moment. Not sure if the new Yahoo or Dell wants to enter the fray as well.
 
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