” The last time Apple chairman Steve Jobs appeared in public before resigning as chief executive in late August was not at one of Apple’s meticulously choreographed product launches. It took place in the unremarkable chambers of the Cupertino City Council, where Jobs made an unannounced appearance in June to unveil plans for a new, one-building Apple campus, not far from Apple’s existing headquarters at One Infinite Loop. Yet in many ways the presentation was quintessential Jobs: He pitched the gargantuan, ring-shaped structure with a mix of flair, theatrics, and hyperbole. ‘It is a little like a spaceship landed,’ Jobs said at one point. He later added, ‘I think we do have a shot at building the best office building in the world,'” Miguel Helft writes for Fortune.
“The campus, if approved and constructed, will house nearly 13,000 employees. Along with the existing headquarters, which has space for 2,800 people and which Apple (AAPL) intends to keep, the iSpaceship will provide plenty of room to grow for years to come,” Helft writes. “(Apple now has about 12,000 people in Cupertino, the majority of them in a smattering of aging buildings it rents and which it plans to vacate.)”
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Helft writes, “The iSpaceship, a futuristic behemoth enveloped in giant sheets of curved glass, has the elegance and pizzazz of so many other Apple creations. It’s also the most visible manifestation that Jobs has been hard at work on what might be his most important product. It is neither an iPhone nor an iPad but rather an enduring and permanent Apple that has the architecture, the processes, the tools — and the soul — to outlive its iconic co-founder.”
Much more in the full article here.