“Apple employees agonize over every last detail in the designs of their sleek gadgets, and their future corporate home — a gleaming loop of glass that calls to mind some sort of spacecraft — has been treated no differently,” Julia Love reports for The Mercury News. “So when construction wraps up in 2016, passers-by can be forgiven for stopping to wonder: Why has the flying saucer landed next to a century-old barn?”
“Underscoring that Apple Campus 2 is at once one of Silicon Valley’s wildest sketches of the future and a portal to its past, the company has set aside a place on its state-of-the-art campus for the Glendenning Barn, named for a pioneer family whose land became a magnet for tech companies after the blooms faded from their orchards,” Love reports. “Constructed in 1916 with planks of redwood, the barn was built to last, though its founders couldn’t have foreseen all that it would withstand: the decline of local agriculture, the rise of big tech and several changes of the guard in Silicon Valley, not to mention Apple’s earth movers.”
“To protect the structure during construction, Apple carefully dismembered the barn, numbering it piece by piece — every plank, nail and crossbeam — so it can be rebuilt just as it was, says Donna Austin, president of the Cupertino Historical Society,” Love reports. “The company has even stockpiled redwood salvaged from an old grove in case any damaged planks need to be replaced.”
Read more in the full article here.
Only in America – in the land of fruits and nuts, especially – is something built in 1916 considered “old.”
And your point?
Just offering a bit of perspective to the uncouth Muricans, perhaps?
So should we just let it be destroyed since it it not old by European standards? Your uncouth European perspective in duly noted.
That’s “Merkns” to you, frenchy. We streamlined it down to just one vowel.
MY home was built in 1906. It’s old. My buddy lives in Durham, UK. His is over 300. He loves our home and vice versa. Never heard him say anything that stupid in my home.
Age is relative, class isn’t.
More respect for the traces of people having been on that continent before the arrival of the invaders pretending it was their “promised land”!
A Brit once told me, “Do you know the difference between America and England? In America, 100 years is a long time. In England, 100 miles is a long ways.”
By California standards, that is old. California only became part of the U.S. in 1850. We also preserve our Spanish Missions dating back to the 18th century. That’s about as old as it gets here. Everything is relative. Seeing some real history is one of the reasons we love travel. Don’t hate on our wild west.
California is a bankrupt shit box. Once beautiful land plastered over with concrete and plastic signs. Taxes, gangs and illegal aliens abound. Horrific.
Sounds like you are confusing the entire state with Los Angeles. There is a lot of beautiful places throughout the state.
‘There is a lot of beautiful places throughout the state.’
‘are’ a lot—- Sheeesh! I see you’re not from around here.
If ever you happen to be in California, European, do try to get more than 50 miles from the coast.
California is lovely, north of Sacramento, or a few miles east of I-5. If you’re within 50 miles of the coast and south of the American River, it’s the asshole of the planet.
Hey European – take your Fox News-inspired talking points and put them where the sun don’t shine (which is probably where you live). The state is not bankrupt – in fact, as a stand-alone economy, California would be the 8th largest IN THE WORLD. The taxes meme is getting old – I’d be happy to compare my property taxes in CA to those anywhere else in the US (generally, they are much lower in California). And no matter where you live, I guarantee you that you don’t have anyplace that is as beautiful as La Jolla or Pasadena or Santa Barbara or Rancho Mirage or San Luis Obispo or Carmel or Sausalito or dozens of other communities in California – and that doesn’t include places of spectacular natural beauty like Yosemite or the redwoods or Grandview or Big Sur. So please return to whatever hovel you live in and STFU.
You don’t get out much do you? Your ignorance is matched only by your idiocy. Cheers.
A truly superior being would see into the hearts and minds of people rather than take a cheap shot at an easy political target.
America has many impressive stone ruins over a thousand years old. People have evidently been living on this continent for at least 14,000 years – and possibly twice as long as that according to some archeologists. There was a vast civilization on this land before the Europeans and their microbes arrived and killed most of them.
Hope that didn’t offend any Young Earth creationists or Christopher Columbus fans – no disrespect intended.
Ah, a heartwarming story it is, what with the young Bernice (now white haired but eyes still flashing) and a mysterious barn. Takes me back, it does.
There’s nary a mystery to that barn and you know it. Hainted it is, and tis only to be but back together to keep the likes of Captain Turdge and his crew from seeking their ghostly revenge. All too well the likes of Jobs and his ilk are familiar, seeing how they make regular use of the supranatural in the success of the company. Just you remember the role played by an apple with Eve and Adam and that serpent. Mark my words, the damned will seek their due. And probably the Cupertino Historic Preservation Society can claim some kind of merit badge for raising their eyebrows when they asked big Steve what were his intentions with that old shed. It looks like a shed, folks. Calling it a barn is spin.
If haunted then there exists mystery, for no two mortals agree on any particulars of an apparition. And it’s a barn, not a shed, and no mistake save by the claim of a lazy carpenter.
It’s no mystery. Tim Cook wants to keep sheep out there. Don’t ask why.
to sing “I Only Have Eyes For Ewe.”
I have noticed that heterosexuals sometimes conflate homosexuality and bestiality. Freud had a theory that persons expressing such beliefs were exhibiting suppressed feelings of identification with said activities.
So if someone punned, “put it in the ass,” that’s to mean they want to? Can’t it be just a joke?
…oh yeah, and lawyers.
Of course it can be just a joke. Some of the best jokes are about sexual perversion. (One must, however, carefully stay up-to-date on the socially accepted definition of it, or risk condemnation.)
Freud also said the sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!
thought that was Bill Clinton.
For Clinton it had more uses than just a cigar
Instead of facepaint and a shaking talisman, Freud used a couch and a cigar…that’s the primary difference between psychoanalysis and voodoo.
That’d be perfect for the new design for Apple’s next flagship store…
Apple Country Stores!
We’re a young country and preserving a modest outbuilding shouldn’t offend anyone or provoke scorn.
Let’s not forget America’s contribution in both lives and materiale during the two world wars, not to mention the Cold War. We made a difference.
It’s nice to see how innovation is ingrained in our young culture.
Very cool story! I love the barn and look forward to seeing it and hopefully surrounding apricot trees whenever I get the chance to visit Apple Campus.
“Why has the flying saucer landed next to a century-old barn?”
Flying saucers always land next to old barns. 😉
Savvy investors are seeing an opportunity in AAPL livestock.