“The mayor of Cupertino, Gilbert Wong, has issued a public statement acknowledging that the city council is backing Apple’s new headquarters project, sometimes dubbed the Mothership. “There is no chance we are saying no,” according to Wong. The city has in fact held a press conference to disclose its position (see video below), and started up a dedicated news page for the building,” MacNN reports.
The design for the new Apple campus puts 12,000 employees in one building! “It’s a little like a spaceship landed,” said Jobs. It’s a giant 4-story ring; curved all the way around with not a straight piece of glass in the place. Jobs said that Apple’s experience building extreme glass for retail stores contributed to the campus’ design know-how.
The site will go from approximately 3,700 trees to around 6,000. The employee count increases by 40%, space will increase by 20%, landscaping by 350%, the aforementioned trees by 60%, and the surface parking (asphalt) decreases by 90%. Apple plans to generate their own power via natural gas and other means that will be cleaner than using the electrical grid. They will use the grid as a backup, not as the primary power source.
Jobs told the council, “I think we have a shot at building the best office building in the world. I really do think architecture students will come here to see this. I think it could be that good.” Jobs wants to submit detailed plans to the council “fairly quickly,” “break ground next year,” and “move in in 2015.”
Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong responds to Steve Jobs’ proposal for a new Apple campus in Cupertino on June 8, 2011:
Apple’s rendering of the Mothership:
