“As founder and chairman of Foster+Partners, Norman Foster has created projects at every scale but may be best known for such innovative tall buildings as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters in Hong Kong (1986), the Swiss Re tower in London, a.k.a. “the Gherkin” (2004), and the Hearst Tower in New York (2006),” Cathleen McGuigan reports for Architectural Record. “The firm’s airport projects include Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok (1998) and Terminal 3 in Beijing International Airport (2008), which is one of the largest buildings in the world.”
A few snippets:
McGuigan: The Apple headquarters you’ve designed for Cupertino, California, will have 12,000 employees in one building.
Foster: You could compare that with a typical university of the same size. Traditionally, you’re probably talking at least 16 or 17 buildings. The Apple building will occupy the site much more tightly than what was there. It was the former Hewlett-Packard site, and, just in the last month, we demolished all the buildings that were there. It was a large number of them. [The new Apple construction will cover 13 percent of the site, while the two dozen former HP buildings, in total, covered much more, according to Foster’s office.]
McGuigan: So what made the form of a ring the logical choice for this building?
Foster: It’s interesting how it evolved. First of all, there was a smaller site. Then, as the project developed, and the Hewlett-Packard site became available, the scale of the project changed. Meanwhile, the reference point for Steve [Jobs] was always the large space on the Stanford campus—the Main Quad—which Steve knew intimately. Also, he would reminisce about the time when he was young, and California was still the fruit bowl of the United States. It was still orchards…
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Mr. Foster looks like Jony Ive’s older brother.
And the new Apple HQ looks like a Mac Pro… only much bigger. Are these coincidences? I think not!
That thing is beyond cool. This is the kind of person that should be admired, not dipshits like Miley Cyrus and Oprah and Al Gore.
The “dipshits” as you say vastly outnumber truly talented and truly capable people. They are incapable of accepting that they are simply mediocre so they tear down the greats, and prop up their own kind. I.e. if Al Gore is so powerful and he’s no smarter than I am, I can be just as powerful! If Oprah can be arguably one of the most pointless human beings on the planet and yet be richer than god, then maybe I can too!
Miley Cyrus I’m giving a pass too for now, because she’s a kid. Even Madonna grew up and said she didn’t want her daughter watching her videos. Heh.
“…Oprah can be arguably one of the most pointless human beings on the planet..”
lol, man that’s cold.
…but you know you felt a thrill when he said it.
Your mediocrity is galactic.
Although I don’t like Oprah’s style of entertainment, I admire her for leading a great many people to focus on being better people.
Or you, botvinnik, the most uninformed, closed minded dipshit in all history.
in ALL history? Even more than da’ Debble?
Foster is a giant .
He is a giant but fact is it has taken him a very long time to be accepted as such and especially so in his own country sadly. Thankfully since the turn of the century he, Rodgers and Grimshaw and now Hadid have been recognised as some of the greatest amongst modern architects. All are controversial in as much as many hate as love their buildings but when they get it right they are true masterpieces. I think the Apple headquarters will raise the bar again in that regard if it is remotely as impressive as it looks in renderings.
Are you really talking about Oprah and this guy in the same conversation? Focus People focus! LOL