New images of consumer electronic giant Apple’s new proposed ‘spaceship’ campus show the circular building with huge glass windows and underground parking.
The city of Cupertino, California, has released a planned development permit that shows what the new headquarters, called Apple Campus 2, is going to look like.
The 2.8m sq-foot, four-storey doughnut-shaped building features walls of glass that lets employees look out from both sides of the ring onto park-like landscaping adorned with 6,000 trees.
The headquarters will contain 13,000 employees, a 1,000-seat auditorium, a corporate fitness centre, 300,000 sq feet of research facilities and underground parking, which will allow for 80pc of the 150-acre property to be landscaped with the trees.
The primary energy source will come from Apple’s own energy building, which uses natural gas and other clean sources. The company will use the city’s grid as its backup source.
Construction of the building is planned to begin next year with a completion date sometime in 2015. Architects Foster + Partners are working with ARUP North America and Kier & Wright, an engineering company that has worked on Apple’s current campus, reports International Business Times.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs proposed the project to the Cupertino City Council in June, saying it could create “the best office building in the world.” Jobs said Apple’s current headquarters, 1 Infinite Loop, only holds 2,800 people and as the company hires 12,000 employees, Apple has been forced to rent buildings in its radius. As a result, the company needs another building to augment this but still wishes to remain in Cupertino.
Apple plans to keep its existing headquarters, Jobs also said.
Top photo: An aerial view of Apple’s proposed new campus, Apple Campus 2, in Cupertino, California
A ground-level view of Apple Campus 2
Parking at Apple Campus 2
Apple Campus 2 will be made of glass walls
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