“Not far from its current offices in Cupertino, California, Apple recently snatched up about 150 acres of land (from Hewlett-Packard, of all people), and wants to build this massive, wheel-shaped facility that can house up to 12,000 employees,” Robin Parrish reports for Apple Gazette.
“Apple would like to build this enormous, environmentally-friendly building by 2015. Instead of the typical “office park” model where various departments get their own structures, Apple is committed to putting all 12,000 employees under a single roof. A roof designed by British architect Norman Foster,” Parrish reports. “Foster is widely regarded as one of the best architects in the modern world, with dozens of famous structures under his belt including London’s bullet-shaped skyscraper at 30 St. Mary Axe and Wembley Stadium. Foster also did the massive one-and-a-half mile long Millau Viaduct in southern France.”
Parrish reports, “The new Apple campus would be four stories tall, and would be completely walled in with curved glass — which is not an easy feat. The ‘green’ building would supplant the current HP campus, and return a great deal of the land to nature.”
More details and images in the full article here.
Related articles:
Steve Jobs wanted to build mothership campus nearly three decades ago – June 14, 2011
Cupertino mayor: ‘There is no chance we are saying no’ to Apple Mothership (with video) – June 9, 2011
Steve Jobs presents giant 12,000 employee ‘spaceship’ campus to Cupertino City Council (with video) – June 8, 2011
I want to live there.
LOL. I know how you feel! I’d love to work there.
Interesting the ‘Gherkin’ is known for its overt phallic overtones, I couldn’t possibly comment on the overtones of this building but one can’t help but see the connection between the two.
In Seattle, we have this:
Uh…ew.
Excuse me!?
Sort of a Thunder pants??
What is the business advantage, why not
Central U.S.??
Advantage is having all employees in one location. The article says they are renting 60 buildings currently! Sorry, but I just can’t imagine SJ living in central US. They do not do manufacturing here in the US, which negates the main benefit of being in the central US. I’m sure many, if not most of the talented people working for Apple would not care to move away from California, which despite its problems is still about the best place to live in the USA, overall.
“Alright, all you bay-area dwellers, we’re moving to Dubuque!”
Yeah, that’ll happen.
That is close to Infinite Loop.
They should make it look like the Safari icon.
That’s where the retractable roof comes into play…
I’m sorry, but there are no additional details that haven’t already been written about here, and elsewhere, and there’s only one image that hasn’t been shown already.
That one image, image #8, shows the “ring’s” northeast section, which has a floor-to-ceiling room, which I can only guess is the large dining room. If one looks at the plan, it seems like there’s a large patio area outside this section, as well as large field/lawn.
Two other comments: one, the overhead view seems to indicate a central corridor thru the ring, possibly a clerestory, but the ground view perspectives show that the outside wall of glass is flanked by a corridor. So, the offices don’t go right out to the glass wall. Two, the R&D center is not in the “mothership”, it’s in the three rectangles down in the Southeast corner, with its own outdoor parking area. Lastly, the auditorium seems to be outdoors, more of an amphitheater than auditorium.
Will it have a bridge like the Starship Enterprise so Dear Leader can play Captain Jean-Luc Picard and say, “Set thrusters to Warp Speed 9, Commander Data. Engage.”
Thrusters aren’t used for warp BLN, they are for maneuvering only. You lose nerd points.
I gain nerd points by pointing that out, but I lose points in every other area possible.
in the article the author says the presentation had “powerpoint slides”. i don’t think so!
I like the girl.
I was wondering about her… Is that an iPod silhouette dancer haunting the grounds?
A fine example of circular reasoning.
@ Rex ..
You forgot to mention, that ..
BLN (at least) referenced Capt. Jon Luc Picard ..
(instead of Capt. Kirk)
BLN obviously knew that Kirk couldn’t go that fast !
Points for that, no ?
BLN? What is that.. The Bare Laked Nadies?
Capt. Kirk could go to warp 9, and in some episodes, went well beyond warp 12.
This is only possible because Warp Factors were different in Kirk’s time. In the mid-24th century, the Warp Factors were changed: Warp 1 was still the speed of light, but Warp 10 became an absolute limit representing infinite velocity. At warp 10, a ship would theoretically occupy all points in the universe simultaneously.
Wow, I thought I was the only one that knew that.
I award you extra points for SiFi accuracy.
For his sci-fi knowledge, kayan wins an all expense paid night out with his cousin, as no other woman will date him
You’re in for a real surprise when you get out of high school.
Geeks get the highest paying jobs and the hottest girls, and jerks end up with nothing because they aren’t smart and no one likes being with a jerk.
At least that was my experience.
And thus the Improbability Drive that Zaphod Beeblebrox stole in Return of the Jedi, so that he and the chosen Harry Potter could fight the forces of Mordor!
Arthur C. Clarke would be so proud! Launch it and spin it up and we have our first space station with artificial gravity!
A wheel/spoke space station with a central docking hub is long overdue, by the way. The U.S. should have built one thirty years ago.
Design options not made public show that the interior can be retrofitted with a parabolic dish of some sort.
I can’t help but wonder what MS will do to copy this. Scraping their campus in favor of a massive Borg cube maybe? Won’t Redmond just love that going up in their skyline!
it looks like a monster cockring
That reminds me of the cock ring warehouse from mr show. “The largest selection of new and used cock rings in the tri state area”. LOL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pSABauyWz0
“including London’s bullet-shaped skyscraper…”
No one in London calls it ‘bullet-shaped’.
Google this (preferably with ‘safe search’ ON:
London dildo
i.e. ‘Moderate’ SafeSearch, versus ‘Strict’.
Remember I warned you!
Locally the San Jose Mercury is running a contest to come up with a name for the ring. So far Mothership and iColoseum are leading the pack. We are a little jealous in Mtn. View, however Google has some nice buildings out by the bay. Nothing like Jobs monument of course, but pretty nice non the less.
Down in Carmel all we have is the iMission.