7 Features That Make The $5 Billion 'Apple Park' A Unique Campus
One of Apple's most significant inventions is its gigantic workspace, popularly known as the 'Apple Park,' 'The Spaceship,' or 'The Ring.' Here are some features that make the 5 Billion dollar workspace a unique campus.
Steve Job's vision was to create history by developing a gigantic office where Apple's innovative minds could work with a unique concept of 'openness'. In 2011, Jobs pitched the idea to Cupertino's city council and eventually bought an industrial park in Cupertino, one hour away from San Francisco. The land cost is estimated to be $160 Million.
The architect appointed for the magnanimous project was Norman Foster, a Pritzker prize winner, who is also the man behind creating the Berlin Reichstag, Hong-Kong airport, and London's Gherkin Tower. The initial development budget of The Ring was approximately $500 Million. However, by the end of 2011, the estimated cost spiked up to $3 Billion. Finally, in 2017, the gigantic ring was developed after investing $5 Billion.
Here are some of the features that make this space the dream campus.
7 The Area Of The Campus
The main building of Apple Park covers a wide area of 2.8 Million sq. ft. The most prominent feature is a gigantic ring that surrounds the campus. The ring itself occupies an area of 1.2 Million sq. ft. of the total office space. It is estimated that Apple's 15,000 employees can comfortably work in The Ring.
The main building is made up of four stories and has a diameter of 1,512 ft. To go to the main building, one will have to travel through a 755 ft. long and 230 m wide tunnel. This tunnel has white tiled walls and takes one to underground parking. Close to 3000 cars can be parked in the underground parking lot. There is parking also available above the ground which can easily accommodate up to 6000 vehicles.
6 The Facilities For Employees
The Apple Park has around 1000 bicycles to help their employees travel throughout the campus. Apart from this, The Ring also has a 100,000 sq. ft. state-of-art wellness center and several basketball courts. The Health and wellness center itself costs $17 Million. It consists of a two-story yoga studio, physical therapy studio, and laundry facilities. It also provides medical and dental services.
Besides the recreational facilities, the apple park features seven cafes. Out of which, the largest one packs three levels and can accommodate around 15,000 people at a time. All cafes have sliding glass balconies that can be opened if one wishes to get some sunlight.
The glass doors and the overall exterior of the café extends to four floors of the building, all the way to the roof. Apple takes nutrition quite seriously and has also customized and patented its pizza boxes. It lets the air and moisture escape so that people can enjoy a take-away pizza without the fear of the crust getting soggy.
5 The Magnificent Auditorium
Another eye-catching feature of Apple Park is its auditorium, also known as the 'Steve Jobs Theater.' Here too, the magnanimous glasses are well shown off. The theater alone costs about 180$ Million and can incorporate about 1000 people.
The theater is located underground, above which is a stunning lobby. The cost of the lobby alone is estimated at around $12 Million. Steve Job wanted the theatre to stand out like a jewel with the auditorium located underground, privately.
4 The Visitor's Center
The Apple Park is only accessible to its employees, and none can enter without a pass. However, Apple took into consideration the emotions of its fans. Respecting this, it built a visitor's center with several sellable items. The center also has a café and a showroom which is an augmented reality area.
Here, people can take a tour of Apple Park using Apple products. Although the visitor center costs $110 Million, Apple believes it to be a good investment. They are considering the fact that visitors may buy the products available for sale while enjoying the amenities provided by the café. One does not need a pass to go to the visitor's center.
3 The 'Breathing' Apple Park
This is one of the unique features of Apple Park. The large area where The Ring is built has natural airflow. This means that Apple Park does not require any form of cooling or heating. It can naturally moderate the temperature.
The Ring inhales air through the soffits that surround it. From here, shafts that act like chimneys exhale warm air outside. Also, to make it feel like a park, 9000 drought-resistant trees were brought in as well. Some of these trees are fruit trees and are planted throughout the campus. These trees also help in maintaining a moderate temperature.
2 The Sustainability And Eco-friendliness Of The Park
Although The Ring's development cost $5 Billion, Apple believes it has reduced future costs tremendously. The vision behind the project was to use renewable forms of energy. The rooftop has harvesting energy from solar farms. These farms can provide 75% of the total energy used by the workspace. That is 17 Megawatts of energy generated through these farms.
The rest, 25%, is covered up with the help of biofuels. Thus, Apple is saving a tremendous amount of energy. Also, the wood used in the development is entirely reused. Apple has used a custom timber veneer, which is recycled, to make the office.
1 The Technologically Advanced Campus
Besides being sustainable and eco-friendly, Apple Park is also technologically advanced. It is resistant to natural disasters such as Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and Flooding. The Base Isolation method protects The Ring from earthquakes. It allows the building to move up to 1.5 ft and 1.37 m in any direction without losing essential services. Thus, Apple employees can work peacefully even if a natural disaster were to hit the office.
Also, the main building's glass doors are about 45 ft. tall and weigh 440,000 pounds each. There are approximately 800 such glass doors, thereby featuring the largest curved glass panes in the world. The glass elevator in the main building is 42 ft, 12.8m high, making it the tallest freestanding glass elevator in the world. Overall, The Ring is claimed to be the world's largest naturally ventilated building.
These are some features that make the $5 Billion Apple Park a dream campus. It would be safe to say that it has raised the overall standards of offices around the world. Steve Job's vision of combining nature, sustainability, and technology to create the future of Apple's office has finally been brought to life. Also, Apple Park is the new hub where Apple will launch most of its new products.
Source: YouTube, I More, Business Today.
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