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Apple building third campus in Santa Clara
Apple is expanding by leaps and bounds and is outgrowing its current Cupertino campus. To handle the overflow, Apple is beginning construction on a new two-building campus in Santa Clara, California. According to a report in the Mercury News, the new six-story office buildings will be located right outside Cupertino city limits. Apple is allegedly leasing the space from developer Peery Arrillaga in a deal that requires the demolition of existing buildings and the construction of new ones built to Apple's specifications. Apple supposedly signed a 7- to 10-year lease agreement for the site, which suggests this is a long-term solution and not just a temporary measure to hold employees while Apple finishes its new Cupertino campus. The first Santa Clara building is now under construction and will be completed by mid-2014. The timeline for the other building is not known.
Cupertino posts tweaked Apple spaceship campus plans as launch risks slipping to 2016
Have you wanted as direct a look as possible at Apple's latest plans for its spaceship-like campus? You've got it -- although you may not be in love with the reason why. Details posted by the city of Cupertino reflect a potential delay in an environmental impact study that might not wrap up until June 2013. If the analysis takes that long, Apple may have to push back the halo-shaped office's opening until 2016, roughly a year later than expected. It's hard to be sympathetic when most of those who'll see the campus first-hand will have to wear an employee badge; even so, it's slightly disappointing to realize that the renderings and schematics at the source link may be our only only glimpse at the company's solar-powered donut for quite awhile.
Apple's 'spaceship' campus might be delayed until 2016
Apple was moving right along on its plans to build a "spaceship"-like campus on the ground in Cupertino by 2015, but according to a new report to the city council, the project has been delayed by at least a year. Apple was hoping to break ground on the new site this year, but the company is still working on an environmental impact report that's not expected to be finished until June 2013, and that report is required for Cupertino's council to approve the building. There aren't any big changes to the plan itself though a few revisions have been made, including a new scheme to develop the area without trucking dirt around, as well as a tweak that will move a big auditorium further away from campus center. The biggest issue is city council approval. And the council says that even if it approves the plans as they are, local residents might have other legal challenges that could delay the process even further. At any rate, Apple may not get to start building the spaceship campus until 2014, which means employees likely couldn't sit down at their new desks until a few years later. That's probably still fine with the company, though given how quickly things are moving in this industry, it's hard to tell just what Apple will be like when that date rolls around.
Apple snaps up land for Texas campus expansion plans
Apple may not be doing much talking about its big Texas expansion plans itself, but we're still getting a fair bit of information about them. Following an impromptu announcement from Texas governor Rick Perry earlier this year, the Austin Business Journal is now reporting that Apple has closed a deal with Riata Vista LP for three large plots of land next to its existing campus in Austin. That sale was reportedly finalized on June 20th, but specifics otherwise remain light, with no word yet on a sale price or the exact size of the land. As we've heard previously, though, Apple is investing over $300 million into the campus, which will eventually result in the creation of 3,600 new jobs.
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 details neighbors on Campus 2 plans, extends rare request for feedback
Cupertino residents may have received an unsolicited package from their most prominent neighbor this week. No, it's not a new iPad, or an early look at the iPhone 5 -- instead, people close to Apple (from a physical perspective) opened the glossy mailing to reveal a detailed look at Apple Campus 2, which will consist of 176 acres currently occupied by "aging buildings" and trees. As we already know, the campus will feature one main circular four-story building with 2.8 million square feet of office and common space, along with an additional 300,000 square feet set aside for dedicated (secure) research buildings. There will be a restaurant, fitness center and other facilities aimed to "reduce automobile trips" as part of the company's plan to protect the environment. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer appeals to neighbors in a single-page letter, offering additional information upon receipt of a pre-stamped response card, which also prompts neighbors to add their name to a list of supporters, attend a public meeting or write a letter to show their support for the new Apple complex. You'll find Oppenheimer's letter in full after the break, along with additional photos at the source link.
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.
Should Apple build a museum on the new campus?
Computer historian David Greelish argues in a blog post that Apple should build a museum on the grounds of its new Cupertino campus. He points out that the flying ring-shaped office will attract everyone from architects to Apple fans who want to check out the unique building. Apple, Greelish says, should embrace these tourists and build a museum that'll showcase Apple's achievements. Greelish offers his ideas on how the museum should be built and even provides a few sample designs. Greelish isn't the first one to propose an Apple museum. Apple toyed with the idea of a corporate museum in the past, but Steve Jobs rejected the idea and gave a collection of Apple memorabilia to Stanford University instead.
Apple to build $304M campus in Austin, Texas
Apple is expanding its presence in Texas with a new campus that'll add 3,600 new jobs, says Texas Governor Rick Perry. The US$304 million campus will double the size of Apple's Texas workforce over the next ten years and bring new customer support, sales and accounting jobs to the region. To help fund this project, Apple will receive $21 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund, a fund created to encourage companies to invest in the Lone Star State. [Via AppleInsider]
Detailed floor plans of new Cupertino 'spaceship' campus released
The city of Cupertino has made the proposed and revised plans for Apple's massive new "spaceship" campus available to the public. If you've got a thing for blueprints and architectural renderings, check out the link to the proposed floor plans for the campus, a 25-page PDF that details the incredible scale and scope of Apple's proposal. Some of the more impressive things I found in my perusal of the plans: The edge-to-edge footprint of the circular structure is just over 1520 feet, or more than a quarter of a mile. The outer circumference of the main building is nearly 4800 feet, or 9/10 of a mile. The main structure contains over 1.8 million square feet of office space spread over 4 above-ground levels. A 4-story, 58,050 square foot restaurant space on the building's northeast corner will provide food for the whole campus. The main building's roof is almost entirely covered in solar panels. Two basement parking levels beneath the main building contain a total of 4300 parking spaces. Another 4-level satellite parking structure provides an additional 4600 spaces. A (relatively) small satellite building provides access to a basement auditorium with seating for approximately 1000 people seated before an enormous stage -- very probably the site of future Apple events. Another satellite structure contains a gigantic corporate fitness center with a 2-story, 48,000 square foot exercise area and what looks like an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Six separate R&D facilities comprise a total of 300,000 square feet of space. The scale of this new campus is impressive and ambitious in just about every detail, and it'll be quite a thing to see once it's finished in 2015.
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."
Daily Update for Sept. 8, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Google Fiber beta test goes live, bathes Stanford in high-speed regularity
When we last checked in on the Google Fiber project, engineers were busy laying the groundwork for a 1Gbps network across both Kansas Cities, while preparing to launch a beta test near Stanford. Now, it looks like the beta service has gone live in the Palo Alto area, according to a lucky Reddit user who claims to be using it. The ISP is available free of charge to students and faculty members within the area, at pretty mouth-watering speeds. No word yet on when the Kansas City communities will receive similar treatment, but you can gaze in awe at the Stanford Speedtest result, after the break.
Apple leases Cupertino office campus for another 1000+ workers
While it waits for its huge mothership office complex to be built, Apple still needs more office space for its expanding employee roll. To that end, the company has leased an office complex in Cupertino that's capable of housing around 1,300 additional workers, according to Mercury News. The nine building complex is just the latest Cupertino expansion by Apple, and local realty agents are now saying that Apple's demand for office space is starting to exceed local availability, with Cupertino "pretty much out of space" according to one agent. All of Silicon Valley is in the same boat, with real estate expansions by Google, Facebook, and other tech giants gobbling up office parks as soon as the for sale signs go up in the front window. Once Apple finishes construction of its futuristic, 13,000-employee office park, it'll be interesting to see if the company retains the lease on its new satellite campus.
Steve Jobs conceived of "statement HQ" for Apple in 1983
The mothership campus Steve Jobs envisions for Cupertino is not the first statement headquarters he has pursued. Back in 1983, Jobs eyed Coyote Valley, San Jose for a world-class campus. Former San Jose mayor Tom McEnery tells the story of a meeting he had with a young Steve Jobs. Jobs saw the Coyote Valley location from a helicopter and selected the grassy property for Apple's next home. Soon the property belonged to Apple, and a rough draft of the plans was sketched on a piece of paper. Jobs hired well-known architect I.M. Pei to build the campus and preserve the pastoral quality of the land. Unfortunately, politics and the economy hindered Jobs' dream. This location was one of San Jose's last undeveloped parcels of land, and its repurposing was the topic of hot debate. At the same time, the economy went belly up and Jobs was removed from the company. McEnery tried to re-kindle interest in the Apple campus with CEO John Sculley, but the idea fizzled and Apple eventually sold the property. [Via MacObserver]
Smug alert: Google says it has largest corporate EV charging network in the US (video)
Things are just getting greener and greener over at Google. Yesterday, the company triumphantly declared that its Mountain View campus now boasts the largest corporate EV charging network in the US, with some 200 chargers currently in place, plus an extra 250 that are on the way. It's all part of El Goog's RechargeIt sustainability initiative, launched in 2007, which has also given rise to the Gfleet -- a set of company-owned plug-ins made available for employees. Now that Google has purchased some extra Chevy Volts and Nissan Leafs, this Gfleet will eventually expand to include a total of 30 EVs, which explains the expansion of its ChargePoint Network. The ultimate goal is to have charging stations at five percent of Mountain View's parking spaces, all of which will be searchable on Google Maps, and available for employees to use for free. The company hopes this initiative will encourage more people to purchase EVs, and estimates that it'll eventually save a total of 5,400 tonnes of CO2 per year -- the equivalent to removing about 2,000 cars from the road. Head past the break for a video on the program, or hit up the source link if you'd like to help Google pat itself on the back.
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 reveals Apple's new spaceship campus, calls it the 'best office building in the world' (video)
Shortly after taking the stage at WWDC, Steve Jobs made an appearance before the Cupertino City Council to pitch the local governing body on Apple's ambition to build a new campus. The site for the curvaceous, four-story, "human-scale" building to house 13,000 employees is the original home of HP's computer systems division, land that was recently sold to Apple. The property is currently covered by a series of big asphalt parking lots. Apple's plan would increase the landscape coverage from 20 to 80 percent with the help of a senior arborist from Stanford who will help restore some of the indigenous plant life to the property, including the apricot orchards. Apple plans to make the campus' energy center the facility's primary power generator using natural gas and other "clean energy" sources -- the city would simply provide backup power when needed. Of course, what would a Jobs presentation be without a few choice superlatives? In this case, Jobs claims that the new curved-glass facility will be the "best office building in the world," luring in students of architecture anxious for a peek. Apple plans to break ground in 2012 with a 2015 move-in date. As an aside, it's fascinating (and yes, troubling) to observe Gilbert Wong, Mayor of Cupertino, guffaw at Steve's "jokes" like a smitten schoolgirl, going so far as to fawn over his own iPad 2 in front of the assembly. For his part, Jobs seems to bite his tongue during several exchanges particularly when one city council member tries to extort free WiFi from Apple in an apparent quid pro quo. Click through to see what we mean. [Thanks, GB]
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.
Google HQ gets juiced with Plugless Power EV charging unit
We've seen it adorned with a giant Honeycomb and an oversized Gingerbread man, and now Google's bringing a more practical addition to its Mountain View campus -- specifically, a Plugless Power EV charging station. Its maker touts the installation as "the first public release" of the handsfree re-juicing system, and says it will eventually provided power to a fleet of low-speed EVs already in use at El Goog HQ -- the first of which has already been retrofitted to get pumped up. Who knows, maybe now we'll see something come of Google's claims to make electrical vehicles charge more efficiently. Full PR after the break.
