Apple Park
It features four stories of office space for over 12,000 employees.A walkway lines the inner and outer perimeter of the building, which means it’d take about 7 and a half minutes to reach the opposite side, or about 15 minutes to walk all the way around.But you may not mind the long walk, considering the view you’d have while taking it.The Ring’s exterior is made up of 36 to 47 foot-long curved glass panels.Resulting in an open, seamless panoramic view of the outdoor landscape.
In fact, Apple Park was designed to be as open as possible in order to encourage the free-flowing of ideas through chance meetings between employees.That’s why apple office spaces are formed into pods, or open office spaces where a worker could be in deep concentration one minute, then bump into a colleague in the next.But not everyone was enthusiastic about this approach.With many employees writing in to tech journalist John Gruber criticizing the open floor plan.Even more complained about the glass walls and doors, which were easy to run into when distracted.In fact, two workers were actually injured and required hospitalization after walking into the building’s translucent walls and doors.This prompted employees to stick post-it notes on the glass to make the obstacles more noticeable,but they were quickly removed because they detracted from the building’s design.Another way The Ring encourages employee interaction is with one big restaurant instead of several small ones located throughout the building.That means employees have to walk further to reach the cafe and increases the likelihood of interactions while eating since everyone is forced into the same 58,000 square foot eating area.
The restaurant in Apple Park itself is called Caff'e Macs, and features four-story sliding glass doors,the largest in the world, that open to the courtyard on nice days.And to prove just how much Apple cares about every detail, they actually patented their own pizza box that prevents the crust from getting soggy.But there’s more to The Ring than meets the eye, because hidden underneath the four story behemoth, is a two story parking garage finished with reflective white tile, domed ceilings, and traffic lights seamlessly integrated into the street signs.This allows workers to drive in and out of Apple Park without obstructing the beautiful view.Speaking of which, the landscaping at Apple Park is one of its most important features.Jobs loved the foliage work done on Stanfords campus, and he tracked down one of the arborists responsible: David Muffly. Who oversaw the planting of 9,000 indigenous trees at Apple Park.Hand picked not only for their appealing structure, but also for their resistance to drought,which has only become more common.The courtyard area consists mainly of apricot, olive, and apple orchards, plus an herb garden near the cafe.But there’s more than just foliage.Apple added an artificial pond that, just like The Ring Building, also happens to be a perfect circle, there’s also a rectangular field with a rainbow structure that actually serves as a stage for speakers or performances.The stage was actually co-designed by Jonathan I've and Foster and Partners.It uses the same rainbow colors as the early Apple logo, and features rounded arches that can be fitted with lighting equipment.But it’s important to point out that The Ring is just one of several buildings at Apple Park.If you travel to the northwest area, which you can reach by using one of the gray Apple bicycles, you’ll find a building that may look a bit out of place.It’s called the Glendenning Barn, and it wasn’t part of Apple’s original plans.The barn was built in 1916 and happened to be on the land Apple bought for their new headquarters.They wanted to demolish it completely, but it had already been declared a histori calsite in 2004 by the city of Cupertino. So after some discussion, Apple agreed to keep the barn and use it to store maintenance tools and other landscaping materials.Beside Glendenning Barn is a much larger building that was part of Apple’s plans.It’s a 100,000-square-foot fitness and wellness center.Complete with changing rooms, showers, laundry services, group workout rooms, and a two story yoga room covered in stone.But not just any stone.Jobs made sure it was sourced from a specific quarry Kansas, and carefully distressed, to make it look like the stone from his favorite hotel in Yosemite.Moving further south, you’ll find the sports fields.Where workers can enjoy a game of basketball or tennis.And even further south is the Apple Park Central Plant, which is attached to the southern parking garage.The central plant houses utility equipment like fuel cells, back-up generators, chillers,condenser water storage, hot water storage, an electrical substation, and water and fire pumps.While the parking garage allows for an additional 9,000 spaces for workers, for a total of 14,200 parking spaces at Apple Park.Heading east from the southern garage, you’ll find my personal favorite building, the Steve Jobs Theater.It’s a circular building made up of curved glass panels, topped with the largest carbon fibre roof in the world.There’s so many amazing details about this building that I’ll probably make an entire video dedicated to it, so make sure you’re subscribed for that.But long story short, the glass panels actually act as support beams for the roof, so no columns or beams are necessary.And if you’re wondering where the actual theater is, it’s all underground.You can reach the theater either by taking the beautifully crafted curved staircase,or by walking into a glass elevator that slowly rotates as it descends, allowing it to have just one door instead of two.The theater itself holds 921 people, about three times more than Apple’s old Town Hall,while still retaining an imitate feel.And while much of the Steve Jobs Theater is underground, it was place on the highest hillside in all of Apple Park.As a symbolic gesture of respect to he man it was named after.Heading north-east from the theater, is the Visitor Center.Which is the only part of Apple Park open to the public.It’s a two-story building with four main areas: An Apple store featuring exclusive merchandise like t-shirts, hats, tote bags and post cards, a 2,300-square-foot cafe,an exhibition area that features a 3D model of Apple Park that visitors can explore in detail using augmented reality, and a rooftop terrace that overlooks the entire campus.The Visitor Center also has an underground parking garage with almost 700 spaces.Now this five billion dollar headquarters has received its fair share of criticism for being too extravagant and its construction too perfectionist.
But I think those words describe precisely the type of campus Steve Jobs wanted for Apple.In the words of Tim Cook, “Steve’s vision is reflected all around us at Apple Park.He would have loved it here, in this place he dreamed up — the home and inspiration for Apple’s future innovations.