Image as sourced from Macdaily news
Steve Jobs, CEO of multi-national company Apple has “reached for the stars” last week when he unveiled plans for a new office complex for the company. Apple with its branded “i” ware, (iPod, IPhone, IPad etc.) is a major leader in all things technological. The company had a 2010 market value as cited by Forbes magazine to be approximately $189.1 billion.
Given their penchant for all things technologically advanced, it is only fitting that this sense should cross over to the design plan of company buildings. The Apple “Campus” will be located in Cupertino California if Mr. Jobs gets the green light from the town to go ahead with building plans. The space –age design plan is reported as being compared to a spaceship.
The building will be in an entirely circular form with the centre removed to allow for an interior garden. During his speech to city council members on the 7th of June, Mr. Jobs stated the importance of the land to him on a sentimental level, as well an environmentally sustainable level.
The massive growth in the company’s size is the catalyst for the extension. Mr. Jobs was quoted as saying “Apple is growing like a weed” with the 12,000 employees dotted around the city of Cupertino in rented out buildings. He went on to say that the buildings location of Cupertino has always, and plans always to be that way.
The building itself will be four stories high, which Mr. Jobs has labelled as “human size”, and will hold the current 12,000 employees, with the ability to also cater for up to 13,000. The original office building on Cupertino’s Infinite Loop drive will still be in use by approximately 2,500 employees. It will include a façade made up of some of the largest pieces of curved glass used in a structure, and will offer facilities such as a cafeteria that is able to cater for up to 3,000 people in any one sitting.
The land area of the project is at 150-acres. 80% of this will be used for landscaping, with a small 20% for building. This is a complete turn around from the current land statistics that show only 20% of the current land space is landscaped. In the true Steve Jobs fashion, sustainability aspects have a special importance in terms of landscaping and design. Not only will cleaner and more efficient electricity be used on site, the maximum number of trees on the land will increase from 3,700 to 6,000 under the supervision from a senior arborist from Stamford University.
The use of four stories of underground car parks will be implemented in order to make the most effective use of the grounds, while another block of four story high car parks have been added on site to cater for the copious amounts of building employees. This is however a total reduction of 90% in surface parking space. Even with an extra 40% of people on site the building footprint is expected to be less than 30%.
While the plans are incredibly advantageous, Mr .Jobs is positive that the new Apple Campus will be a state of the art design feat.
“I think we do have a shot at building the best office building in the world. I think Architecture students will come here and see this,” he said.
The buildings completion and use are expected to take place in 2015.
