Apple ‘spaceship’ nestles on earth
cupertino — Apple’s new “spaceship” headquarters peeked above a nearby hillside as the sun shined gloriously through towering glass walls of the entryway to Steve Jobs Theater.
The smell of freshly turned soil was heavy in the warming air even as the site was inaugurated with the unveiling of a 10th anniversary iPhone at Apple Park in Silicon Valley.
“Apple Park has been built to reflect Apple’s values for technology and the environment,” chief executive Tim Cook said after paying tribute to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs at the first-ever media event at the new campus Tuesday.
“The park itself was converted from a sea of asphalt to a green space with more than 9,000 trees; designed to be transparent with nature and bring the outside in.” Glass walls give the feeling of remaining in nature even after stepping inside.
Plants and trees taking root throughout the grand campus are native to California, and drought-resistant. All the electricity needed to run the campus comes from an on-site solar power system, one of the largest in the world.
Light streams down onto a curved stairway made of goldtoned stone leading down to Steve Jobs Theater built into the hill. “Steve Jobs was an incredibly detail-oriented person, and this was his baby,” said Creative Strategies analyst and Silicon Valley veteran Tim Bajarin.
“This should be a crown jewel in the sense of design.”
Apple Park was created with “extraordinary attention to detail and materials,” according to Cook.A visitors center that will open to the public later this year
steve Jobs was an incredibly detail-oriented person, and this was his baby Tim Bajarin, Creative Strategies analyst and Silicon Valley veteran
features an augmented reality experience to virtually explore the campus.
About six months ago, workers began boarding the futuristic new campus, fulfilling a vision set out by Jobs, the company’s late founder. The process of moving more than 12,000 people to a new campus that Jobs envisioned as a “center for creativity and collaboration” was expected to continue late into the year.
A theater on the new Apple Park campus was named in honor of Jobs, who died six years ago after a battle with pancreatic cancer. “Steve’s vision for Apple stretched far beyond his time with us,” Cook said in a release earlier this year. “He intended Apple Park to be the home of innovation for generations to come.”
The 175-acre (70-hectare) campus with a ring-shaped main building clad in giant panels of curved glass blends workspaces and parkland. “I was amazed at the landscape,” Bajarin said after leaving Apple Park. —