Apple today announced that Apple Park (also referred to as Apple Campus 2) will be ready to occupy beginning in April. Envisioned by Steve Jobs as a “center for creativity and collaboration,” the 175-acre campus will serve as a new home for more than 12,000 employees, who will be moved-in over a six month period. Construction on outer buildings and park spaces will continue through the summer.
Designed by Foster + Partners, Apple Park is organized around a ring-shaped, 2.8 million-square-foot central building clad entirely in the world’s largest panels of curved glass. In addition to the office buildings, the campus will contain a visitors center with a publicly-accessible Apple Store and Cafe, a 100,000-square-foot fitness center for Apple employees, and state-of-the-art research and development facilities. The surrounding parklands will offer two miles of walking and running paths, as well as an orchard, meadow and pond to create a relaxing work environment.
Apple has also announced the naming of the Steve Jobs Theater, in honor of the company’s visionary founder and his enduring influence on the world. Set to open later this year, the theater will hold up to 1,000 people, and will be accessed via a 20-foot-tall, 165-foot-diameter glass cylinder capped with a metallic carbon-fiber roof.
“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.”
“Steve was exhilarated, and inspired, by the California landscape, by its light and its expansiveness. It was his favorite setting for thought. Apple Park captures his spirit uncannily well,” said Laurene Powell Jobs. “He would have flourished, as the people of Apple surely will, on this luminously designed campus.”
Before his passing in October of 2011, Jobs spent a large portion of his time working with Foster + Partners designing strategies for the Apple Park campus.
“Steve invested so much of his energy creating and supporting vital, creative environments. We have approached the design, engineering and making of our new campus with the same enthusiasm and design principles that characterize our products,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “Connecting extraordinarily advanced buildings with rolling parkland creates a wonderfully open environment for people to create, collaborate and work together. We have been extremely fortunate to be able to work closely, over many years, with the remarkable architectural practice Foster + Partners.”
The campus has also been held to strict environmental standards. Building rooftops will hold panels capable of producing 17 megawatts of solar energy, one of the largest on-site installations in the world; 100 percent of campus energy will come from renewable sources. Apple Park will also feature the world’s largest naturally ventilated building, predicted to require no heating or air conditioning for nine months of the year. Additionally, over 5 million-square-feet of existing asphalt and concrete have been replaced with natural fields and more than 9,000 native and drought-resistant trees.
News via Apple.
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