
Apple Submits Updated Campus 2 Plans to Cupertino - davidedicillo
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/12/06/apple_submits_updated_renderings_plans_for_cupertino_spaceship_campus.html
======
ccc3
It's interesting to look at these renderings in the context of the story from
a couple of days ago about working out at the office
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3314922>).

Treadmills in a conference room are certainly better than sitting all day. But
instead of a treadmill, I'd rather just work in an office where I could go
outside and take a walk. I hope more companies will start thinking about
office design in the way that Apple has, even if they do it on a smaller
scale.

~~~
kabdib
When I worked at Apple, I lived about half a mile from campus. I'd often go a
week without even getting into my car; I could walk to everything important,
including grocery stores. There were three very good bookstores within a 20
minute walk [now all out of business, btw].

I miss that.

~~~
untog
I can't imagine life _not_ being that way. I live in NYC and can walk to
everything important, or take a short subway ride to anything else. I've gone
months without getting in a car- if I ever move I think I'd miss that a lot.

~~~
sjs
Same here in Victoria, BC. (population: ~300,000) I think downtown living in
most cities is similar.

~~~
untog
Wow, someone from Victoria! That's a rarity. I went to UVic and lived in Vic
for about three years. Getting around in Vic without a car is definitely a
little more difficult, mostly because the bus service is so cruddy.

Still, I miss Victoria. I try to get back every year for the Beerfest.

~~~
sjs
Small world :) There are at least a few of us here on HN (that I know of).

Everything I need is downtown so I rarely bus anywhere. Living out by uvic
would be annoying without a vehicle though.

------
dsplittgerber
One can only applaud this. You do wonder sometimes why companies spent so few
$$ on relaxing office buildings. Looking into nature increases productivity
and well-being; also there are a lot of findings on how to organize work
floors for optimal collaboration etc. Most companies are just not interested.
Doesn't make sense to me (except for short-term profits).

~~~
edderly
I was watching 'The Pixar Story' the other day and they talked about the
campus they opened in 2000. Jobs talked about the importance of 'unplanned
interactions' and workplace being key to the success of a creative company.

[http://www.armchaircommentary.com/2011/10/amazon-goes-to-
pix...](http://www.armchaircommentary.com/2011/10/amazon-goes-to-pixar.html)

"Main Building

The Pixar campus opened in 2000. It was built on the location of an old
canning factory and the factory vibe inspired the architecture. Steve Jobs,
one of the Pixar founders was heavily involved in the design. He wanted
Pixar's main building to serve as a central gathering place where employees
would come several times a day to interact and share ideas. In service of this
goal a cafeteria, coffee shop and the employee mail room were clustered within
steps of each other within the atrium of the main building. Pixar lore is that
Jobs was so obsessed with the idea of all employees venturing to this area at
least once a day that he advocated for only having one bathroom on the campus.
He was overruled."

~~~
tvon
For the curious, "The Pixar Story" is available on Netflix Instant

[http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Pixar_Story/70083532?t...](http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Pixar_Story/70083532?trkid=2361637)

------
philwelch
It's beautiful. After many decades of Silicon Valley turning from orchards and
trees into strip malls and office parks, it looks like Steve wanted to take a
little slice of the Valley and turn it back. The building itself takes up a
very small part of the land.

------
yock
It's a simple concept. Make a place that people want to be and they'll come
and they'll stay. Steve knew that he leaned heavily on each and every one of
his employees, and that they delivered. I speculate that this was his vision
on how to extend those people even further, by exciting them about the simple
state of being on the Apple campus.

------
damien
That's one kickass walled garden... just what I'd expect from Apple. ;)

------
Killah911
This building is amazing on so many levels. It's got a very Zen quality to it,
the symbolism of the full circle, and to my geek mind it reminded me of the
iPod click wheel (wonder if the restaurant area is where the "menu" would be?
:-P) It almost feels like last Steve's last One More Thing...

------
arctangent
Apple ought to make these images available in resolutions suitable for desktop
backgrounds...

~~~
smackfu
Who needs porn when you can have renderings of a corporate campus!

------
justinph
My wife is a landscape architect. I think she likes Apple even more, now.

------
mrbgty
When I worked for HP, they were constantly trying to shut down buildings or do
things which made the office spaces less desirable to employees to save money.

It's good to see Apple making things better.

------
nik_0_0
PDFs also aren't working for me. Does anyone know if there is a higher-res
picture of the rendering posted? I would love a version as close to 1920x1080
as possible! ([http://cdn.iphoneincanada.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2011/12/Scre...](http://cdn.iphoneincanada.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2011/12/Screen-Shot-2011-12-06-at-6.01.01-PM.png))

------
brudgers
The darker colored roof perhaps suggests photovoltaic arrays rather than a
high albedo roof as depicted in the original rendering.

------
kmfrk
Does someone have a mirror of the plans? The links in the article don't work
for me because of the load.

~~~
johnbatch
Doesn't look like much has changed from
<http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/13/apples-new-headquarters/> which has links to
scribed uploads.

------
smackfu
The big PDFs aren't loading for me. Is the idea that the boxes on the bottom
are the parking lots, and everyone needs to walk across the big field to get
to the building? How far is that? Is there handicapped parking somewhere else?

~~~
johnbatch
There are 2 levels of parking underneath the main building.
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/62205913/FloorPlan-Cross-Section>

~~~
smackfu
Is there also some other 4-level parking structure somewhere? The scribd
documents don't zoom quite enough to actually read the text.

~~~
fiatpandas
That big diagonal looking structure seen in the site plan is a 4 story car
park, with 3 levels sunken below grade (depending on which side of the
structure you are looking at).

There are an additional 2 levels of parking below the main building, and a few
other auxiliary buildings, including a remote physical plant.

------
notatoad
the proposed vehicle circulation routes appear at odds with the renders.
having a road running immediately around the outside of the building will
certainly ruin the "embedded in nature" aesthetic they've got going on there.

~~~
pennig
A road? Were you looking at the floor plan for one of the underground parking
levels?

~~~
notatoad
first diagram in the link is traffic flow. there's a blue circle going all the
way around the building. appleinsider has kindly cropped out any sort of
legend, i suppose it could be underground though.

~~~
pennig
Ahh, you're right. I took a look at the PDFs and the blue circle indicates
emergency access routes.

------
demallien
For those that have been following the development of the new Apple campus,
there aren't a lot of changes from when the plans were first released several
months back, so no need to click through to the article.

------
elii
Am I the only one seeing this?

[http://f.cl.ly/items/3M3D0X1Q3i3i0k2U3B3y/AppleCampusSpinner...](http://f.cl.ly/items/3M3D0X1Q3i3i0k2U3B3y/AppleCampusSpinner.gif)

------
callahad
I wonder how the workspaces will be arranged; it seems like it might be tricky
to mitigate glare on a glossy display with natural light coming in on all
sides.

~~~
fiatpandas
They could do a few things about it. The building is designed with big 10'
horizontal louvers covering the facades, which will diffuse a lot of light so
it isn't as intense. They can also coat the glazing with special film to
reduce the effect. Additionally, it helps that the floor plates are really
deep.

------
mrkmcknz
No words can describe how freaking awesome this is.

This could be one of the most influential and inspiring buildings in the
world.

Up there with the Burj.

~~~
willyt
May I suggest you have a look at some of these in google image search:

pier luigi nervi

centre pompidou paris

lloyds of london

frei otto gridshell structure

norman foster masdar

norman foster gherkin

zaha hadid bmw factory

zaha hadid wolfsburg

jean nouvel institut du monde arabe

renzo piano padre pio

jean nouvel quai branly

schlumberger research centre

madrid barajas airport

Thats kind of a random selection from the 'hi-tech' taster menu.

------
Aloisius
Meh.

While it is certainly interesting from far away and above, very few people
will see this building from that perspective. On the ground, this is going to
look like a rather dull 4 story glass and concrete wall. There is nothing
iconic or immense about it to the average visitor.

As far as I can tell, the wow factor is limited to those with helicopters.

------
av500
Am I the only one that fails to see what is so special about a donut shaped 4
storey building in a park like setting?

------
vijayr
cupertino.org seems to be down :(

