theceomagazine.com | 85A little later than planned, in June 2017, Apple’s
employees began moving into the new HQ, with the
numbers expected to have swelled to more than
12,000 by year’s end. Those employees will be
sharing open-plan offices, sitting at custom-made,
18-foot tables shipped in from the Netherlands.
More than 1,000 bikes are on hand to help staff
navigate the giant facility, supplemented by electric
carts and shuttles.
“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, at a presentation to welcome the first
employees into the facility.
The numbers are clearly incredible. A four-storey,
perfectly circular building, framed in six kilometres
of glass – made up of what Apple claims to be the
world’s biggest pieces of curved glass – encircles green
parkland filled with some of the site’s more than 9,000
planted trees, specially chosen to be drought-resistant
in the face of California’s worsening water crisis.
There are 3.2 kilometres of running and walking
tracks through this vast parkland in the heart of Silicon
Valley’s urban jungle, along with countless cafes (one
of which is open to the public as well as staff) and one
staggeringly large restaurant, designed to encourage
staff of all levels to mingle.
Jobs was conscious of the fact that reliance on grid
electricity would leave Apple susceptible to brownouts
and outages, so more than 75 per cent of the building’s
power comes from the vast forest of solar panels that
line the roof, while biogas fuel cells housed in an onsite
power-generating facility act as backup.
LARGEST ‘BREATHING’ BUILDING
The spaceship itself is the world’s largest ‘breathing’
building, with the glass walls equipped with water-
cooled vanes that act as natural air conditioning, and
allow the building to do without traditional heating
or cooling for nine months of the year.
The dual unveiling of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X
took place in the recently completed Steve Jobs
Theatre in Apple Park in September, when Jobs would
have been 62 years old, launching the 1,000-seat
auditorium that will be home to all future Apple
presentations, with their frenzied excitement. The
attendant media were almost as excited about the
building as they were about the new phones and their
animated poop emojis or animojis.
“Steve was exhilarated and inspired by the
California landscape, by its light and its expansiveness,”
says his wife, Laurene.
“It was his favourite setting for thought. Apple Park
captures his spirit uncannily well.”“IT’S A PRETTY AMAZING BUILDING.
IT’S KIND OF LIKE A SPACESHIP LANDED.”
Tech HQ | INNOVATE