cupertinocitycouncil
Latest
Cupertino delays per-employee business tax for Apple and others
This week, Cupertino's city council voted to delay a measure that would put an employee "head tax" on local businesses before the population for a vote. The Silicon Valley city is, of course, home to Apple, which opposed the measure.
Cupertino City Council unanimously approves Apple's new campus
Fret not, devotees: the mothership is coming home. Yes, in a vote that shocked no one, the Cupertino City Council unanimously approved Apple's Campus 2 -- otherwise known as the spaceship campus. The vote was held last night after the council opened up the floor to hear arguments for and against the building of Apple's new HQ. As MacRumors notes, this vote of approval isn't quite the last step to getting it built. There's always a chance that someone could petition the council to reconsider its decision, but that would need to be done within the next 10 days. If that doesn't happen, Apple can begin demolishing existing structures on the site. Then on November 19, there will be one final public reading of the agreement between Apple and the City of Cupertino. If there are no last-minute, dramatic oppositions, Apple's full building permits will go into effect the next day.
California fast-tracks Apple's new headquarters
Apple is building a new campus in Cupertino and the process should proceed smoothly now that the project has been given fast track status by California Governor Jerry Brown. "Apple's state-of-the art campus brings at least $100 million dollars in investment to California and generates no additional greenhouse gas emissions," said Brown in a statement sent to The Mercury News and reported on SiliconValley.com. Fast-tracking the project won't speed up construction, but it will make it easier for Apple to navigate the complicated approval process. This new fast track procedure was signed into law last fall as a way to improve the job market in California. Approved companies will be able to move quickly through the judicial review process and any challenges to the company's environmental impact report will be pushed rapidly through the court system. Apple is expected to break ground on the project in early 2013 and complete construction by 2015. [Via Mac Observer]
Apple sends letter to neighbors about new "spaceship" campus
Apple wants its new spaceship-style campus to be as free from controversy as possible. To quell any discontent from its neighbors, the company is reaching out to Cupertino residents and asking them for feedback about the project. In a document obtained by 9to5Mac, Apple tells residents how and why it's building this new campus. According to the document, the research facility will accommodate 13,000 employees with additional 300,000 feet of space for expansion. The facility will be used for research and won't include any industrial or manufacturing work. It will be built according to LEED standards and will include a large solar array that'll cover the roof. It will open its doors to employees in 2015, but it won't be open to the public. After reading about the new campus, residents can fill out a postage paid response card or visit the Cupertino.org website to leave their feedback, ask questions or share their concerns.
Cupertino City Council produces Steve Jobs tribute video
The Cupertino City Council has paid tribute to the memory of Steve Jobs by adjourning its meeting on Tuesday, October 18, 2011. As mentioned on the Cupertino City Council website, "The city is in the process of reviewing the new Apple Campus 2 headquarters project, which was Mr. Jobs' vision." Earlier this year, Steve Jobs unveiled plans to build a new Apple Campus in Cupertino to house the growing needs of the company, alongside its existing campus at 1 Infinite Loop. The council staff also put together a tribute video montage of extracts from Steve Jobs' last presentation to the council, amongst memorable moments of Steve Jobs career at Apple. The last two times Steve Jobs presented at the council, he received standing ovations on both occasions. And on both occasions it was made very clear how proud the council members are to have Apple call Cupertino its home. [Via Business Insider]
LA Times critic disparages future Apple Campus
Los Angeles Times Architecture Critic, Christopher Hawthorne, examined the architectural plans for Apple's newly proposed campus and wasn't too pleased with what he saw. Instead of buying into Jobs' architectural sales pitch like the Cupertino City Council did, Hawthorne criticizes the building, claiming it's not futuristic mothership, but is "doggedly old-fashioned" and reflects the suburban corporate architecture of the 60's and 70's. Hawthorne also criticizes Jobs' tight control over the building plans, noting that the architects designing the building are hardly ever mentioned by Jobs. The critic implies that Jobs likes to appear as if he plays an active role in the design of each building, but really has little to do with it. It's the architects that do the bulk of the work. Hawthorne even disapproves of the building on a socioeconomic level claiming the building's serene and secure environment keeps its employees aloof from the world around it. He notes it's "essentially one very long hallway connecting endlessly with itself" and calls its a "retrograde cocoon."
Cupertino: "There is no chance that we're saying no" to Apple's new building
"The Mothership has landed in Cupertino," says Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong. These words were uttered during a press conference to confirm that the California city will welcome the new Apple campus with open arms. The decision is not based on any preferential treatment for Apple because of its reputation. It's a financial one. Apple is one of the largest tax payers in the city, and its directors don't want to lose this revenue. The circular building will be built on land Apple purchased from HP. The new campus will be four stories high and enclosed in custom-made curved glass. The area surrounding the building will be re-landscaped with 6,000 trees. The building will also include its own energy center and will use California's power supply only as a backup. In his address to the city yesterday, Steve Jobs says he hopes the building will open in 2015. You can follow the progress of this huge project at http://www.cupertino.org/apple.
Steve Jobs unveils new Apple campus that literally looks like a mothership
At a Cupertino City Council meeting last night, Steve Jobs presented plans for Apple's new campus off I-280 in Cupertino. As you can see from the image above, the campus resembles a spaceship. The entire campus will be one huge round building with a courtyard in the middle. The building itself will be four stories tall, and Apple plans to re-landscape the current area to include 6000 trees. A natural gas energy center will be on-campus to power the new building, and Apple will only rely on California's power grid as a backup. Speaking to the City Council, Steve Jobs described the new campus (as transcribed by MacRumors): "It's a pretty amazing building. It's a little like a spaceship landed. It's got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle... It's a circle. It's curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. It's all curved. We've used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building... It's pretty cool." Last November, Apple bought the former 98-acre HP campus that will be home to the new campus Steve Jobs showed off. The purchase of the 98-acre campus was in addition to a 50-acre site that Apple bought in 2006. You can check out Jobs' "keynote" to the Cupertino City Council below. Also, for those of you keeping track, this is the second time the Cupertino City Council has given Steve Jobs a standing ovation. When I worked for Apple, coworkers who were located outside of Cupertino would frequently ask "So when are you going to the mothership next?" "Mothership," of course, being an epithet for Apple's campus at 1 Infinite Loop. Now the term is moving a step closer to the literal -- at least insofar as looks go.
