Apple’s Curpertino HQ, Update!

Architizer News

Apple’s Curpertino HQ, Update!

August 15, 2011

All images: Foster + Partners, ARUP, Kier & Wright, Apple

More details of Apple’s proposed new campus in Cupertino dropped over the weekend. When the project was first revealed in June, a chipper Steve Jobs oozed nerd by extolling the virtues of Apple’s innovations in building materials (“We know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. . . . We can make it curve all the way around the building”) and sheer coolness-factor (“It’s a pretty amazing building. It’s a little like a spaceship landed.”), but ultimately failed to name the architects responsible for the design. After months of speculation, the news release confirms Foster + Partners as the architects, as well as the involvement of, you guessed it, ARUP and local civil engineering firm Kier & Wright.

More after the jump!

Filed under “Apple Campus 2″, the just-announced plans detail a four-story circular structure comprising of nearly 2.8 million square feet, which would be able to accommodate up to 13,000 employees. The main facilities would include a 1,000 seat Corporate Auditorium, a corporate fitness center, a 300,000 square foot Research Center, a Central Plant, and associated parking.

Aside from providing its employees with a hospitable and smart environment, promising “efficiency and convenience” and the experience of a “distinctive and inspiring 21st Century workplace,” Apple is seeking to set the tech-standards for building, installing a Central Plant that will decrease reliance on Cupertino’s power grid by generating its own energy.

The plans are currently under review by the City of Cupertino. The environmental impact will first be assessed, followed by a development review and then public hearings at the Planning Commission and the City Council. Which is all to say, it’s only a matter of time and perfunctory bureaucratic proceedings before Apple begins construction.