Apple Park is nearly complete. Image: Apple
Steve Jobs’s vision of an Apple campus in the green heart of the Santa Clara Valley is close to being realised.
Apple’s giant ‘spaceship’ campus, known as Apple Park, will be occupied from April onwards.
The tech giant said that the new 175-acre campus will accommodate 12,000 employees, and the entire move will take six months.
The campus was envisioned by Steve Jobs shortly before his death in 2011.
The vision was for a space for creativity and collaboration, and, after receiving planning permission, the process of transforming miles of asphalt into a green space in the Santa Clara Valley began.
Turning asphalt green
The ring-shaped 2.8m sq ft main building is clad entirely in the world’s largest panels of curved glass.
Apple revealed the movement process ahead of Steve Jobs’ birthday this Friday (24 February). He would have been 62.
To commemorate the co-founder of Apple, the theatre at Apple Park – a giant 1,000-seat auditorium housed in a 20-foot tall glass cylinder – will be named the Steve Jobs Theater.
“Steve was exhilarated, and inspired, by the California landscape, by its light and its expansiveness,” said Jobs’s wife Laurene Powell Jobs.
“It was his favourite setting for thought. Apple Park captures his spirit uncannily well.
“He would have flourished, as the people of Apple surely will, on this luminously designed campus.”
Designed in collaboration with Foster and Partners, Apple Park will also include a visitors centre with an Apple Store and café open to the public, a 100,000 sq ft fitness centre for Apple employees, and secure research and development facilities.
The parklands will offer two miles of walking and running paths for employees, plus an orchard, meadow and pond within the ring’s interior grounds.
Apple Park in pictures
The Steve Jobs Theatre. Image: Apple
Apple Park is replacing 5m sq ft of asphalt and concrete with grassy fields and more than 9,000 native and drought-resistant trees. It will be 100pc powered by renewable energy.
With 17 megawatts of rooftop solar, Apple Park will run one of the largest on-site solar energy installations in the world. It will also be the site of the world’s largest naturally ventilated building, designed to require no heating or air conditioning for nine months of the year.
Apple Park has the largest rounded glass windows in the world. Image: Apple
“Steve’s vision for Apple stretched far beyond his time with us. He intended Apple Park to be the home of innovation for generations to come,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
“The workspaces and parklands are designed to inspire our team as well as benefit the environment. We’ve achieved one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the world and the campus will run entirely on renewable energy.”
