Five and a half years ago Steve Jobs stood in front of the Cupertino City Council and made a presentation to the councilors seeking approval to build the next Apple headquarters on the North-East edge of the City. This enormous structure has become known as the “spaceship” due to its design and while planning and construction have taken some time, Apple Staff will begin to move into the building in under two months.
To be known as Apple Park, the 175-acre site is a whole new campus for Apple, with 12,000 employees moving into the building over the course of the six months that follow the initial move in April.
Work is not yet complete, and some construction and landscaping will continue throughout the US summer.
Steve Jobs saw this as a “center for creativity and collaboration” – creating a huge green space in the city, within and around the 260,000-square meter main building which is encased using the world’s largest panels of curved glass.
In a fitting tribute to founder and visionary Steve Jobs, Apple will name the theatre on the new campus the “Steve Jobs Theater” – set to open later this year, this will likely be the venue for many future keynote addresses and product launches.
The theatre sits on the south-eastern corner of the property, adjacent to a and part of a man-made hill, and is constructed underground.
Construction imagery on Google Maps shows the inside of the theatre, while Apple’s own drawings show how a subtle round building will mark the entrance to the Steve Jobs Theater.
“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 favourite 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.”
