Exclusive new aerial videos show Apple's 'spaceship' Campus 2 taking shape

Posted:
in General Discussion edited September 2014
Apple's massive campus expansion in Cupertino, Calif., is making rapid progress, as revealed in aerial shots captured by an amateur photographer using a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ drone sponsored by B&H Photo Video.

Moving the earth



The latest footage of the Campus 2 site, exclusively captured by a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ drone, reveals massive initial earthwork and the beginning concrete foundations of the circular Campus 2 structure making up the center of the site, as well as two large parking structures south of the central "spaceship," straddling Interstate 280.

Once completed, the ring will provide over 2.8 million square feet of space and house over 12,000 employees. In the video above, the B&H drone rises at the northwest corner of the construction site, flies over the ring foundation, and then turns around to view the concrete plant inside the green perimeter fence that circles the site.

Apple Campus 2 looking southeast


In the image above, the northwest corner of the construction site has been devoted to earthwork, following the removal of acres of parking lots that formerly covered most of the site. After the construction work is finished, these piles of sand, cement and gravel will be replaced with fruiting orchards surround by other trees. The space is also slated to include a fitness center for employees.

Apple Campus 2 looking southeast


A subterranean ring foundation and retaining walls are also now taking shape, visible in the detail above. The initial walls appear to be rising about four stories above the basement, dwarfing the large concrete mixers and pumper trucks currently working to rapidly lay slabs that will make up the floor of the giant ring-shaped building.

Shifting the street grid

Viewing the Campus 2 site from the opposite south edge (below), you can see that all of Ridgeview Court and most of Pruneridge Avenue are now gone.

Apple Campus 2 looking north


A detail of the image (below) illustrates the scale of the earthwork being performed, which dwarfs the existing building on the remaining stump of Pruneridge Ave at the central eastern edge of the site.

Apple had been actively using a series of other low rise office buildings on Ridgeview, located between the apartment complex on the west edge of the site and the eastern boundary defined by Tantau Ave and the concrete waterway that cuts through the southeast corner of the parcel.

The series of six Ridgeview buildings, previously profiled in our report early last year, are now all gone. In their place, two long oval foundations are being installed for the twin parking structures that will go up along the freeway, providing most of the 9,240 parking spaces planned for the site.

A short segment of Pruneridge Avenue will remain to serve as the access path for cars parking in these new structures from Wolfe Road on the western boundary (as well as serving the apartment complex that encroaches on the site).

Apple Campus 2 looking north


In the video below, the B&H drone rises at the south 280 freeway edge of the construction site and flies over the parking structure foundations toward the central ring.



Apple also has aggressive plans to leverage its existing transit program to divert as much commuter traffic as possible into its own shuttle busses, which integrate with regional transit systems. The company outlined commitments last summer to move 34 percent of the 14,200 employees who will work at Campus 2 out of single occupancy vehicles.

AppleInsider reviewed the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ flying drone last month and found the stabilized camera to be a huge improvement over its predecessor. The device can be purchased here from partner and authorized reseller B&H Photo.

Apple itself has publicly portrayed its Campus 2 construction project in its interactive 3D Flyover images (below) presented by Apple Maps for iOS and OS X, although the latest imagey appears to be from around June of this year.

Apple Campus 2 Maps Flyover


Apple has updated its Maps Flyover imagery of the site since April, when it depicted the site as it appeared last year (below), with all of the original buildings of the former Hewlett Packard Pruneridge site occupying the top half of the parcel, in the land between Pruneridge Avenue and the northern boundary of East Homestead Road.



Apple's current Flyover imagery is more up to date than Google Earth, which hasn't been updated in years, or Google Maps satellite images, which still portrays the former site with only some demolition of buildings evident. Apple began demolishing the old HP buildings over the past winter.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

    Apple Campus 2 looking southeast



    The initial walls appear to be rising about four stories above the basement, dwarfing the large concrete mixers and pumper trucks currently working to rapidly lay slabs that will make up the floor of the giant ring-shaped building.

     

    Looks more to me like they’re still working on the basement, given that the center ring is the ground level... What am I missing? If you look at the staircase at the middle of the frame, it looks like it’s 4 stories underground, too.

  • Reply 2 of 27
    I wonder what Apple will rename the streets?

    Apple Way?
    iDrive?
    Magic Street?
  • Reply 3 of 27
  • Reply 4 of 27
    jb2017 wrote: »

    Yes and AI wants those clicks now. They're Samsunging 9to5 Mac.
  • Reply 5 of 27
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post



    I wonder what Apple will rename the streets?



    Apple Way?

    iDrive?

    Magic Street?

    Probably not.

     

    They have not renamed any other streets since they were all existing (Bubb, Bandley, Mariani, etc.). They built Infinite Loop which is why it got its unusual name.

     

    Most likely Campus 2 will have an official street address of one of the existing border streets (Tantau, Homestead, Wolfe). They likely would assign new names to some of the new streets on the campus, but they wouldn't change anything existing.

  • Reply 6 of 27
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post

     
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jb2017 View Post



    New? 9TO5Mac released a very similar video on August 31st.. http://************/2014/08/31/apple-spaceship-campus-construction-caught-on-film-by-flying-drone/




    Yes and AI wants those clicks now. They're Samsunging 9to5 Mac.

     

    AI went all out with a sponsored drone of their very own. In this case I don't really mind since 9to5mac didn't design and build the drone, etc. AI using a drone for the same purpose is just smart. Never using a drone to look at the campus because 9to5mac did it would be dumb. I want weekly flights please to keep me updated. Where are the 14MP images though?

  • Reply 7 of 27
    Boom! Street
    It's That Easy Street
    Incredible Street
  • Reply 8 of 27
    AI went all out with a sponsored drone of their very own. In this case I don't really mind since 9to5mac didn't design and build the drone, etc. AI using a drone for the same purpose is just smart. Never using a drone to look at the campus because 9to5mac did it would be dumb. I want weekly flights please to keep me updated. Where are the 14MP images though?

    If I wear a t-shirt with a B&H logo maybe I can get some free presents.
  • Reply 9 of 27

    For those techies who think these drones are cold and a great idea, think again. These things pose a huge privacy issue.

     

    I personally never thought about since all the drone videos I have seen were of public events and such and I never saw one live action. Well last night the wife and I had one of these buzzing our neighborhood during out walk. At first, I could barely hear it and took a little time to locate it, this one had blinking LEDs making it a little easier to locate in the sky. It mainly stayed above the tree tops, then whomever was controlling it, decided to buzz the house and flew it between the homes and such. Once the wife realize this thing had a camera on it and how easily if could fly up to a window she freaked out, to say the least. We looked all over and could not find the person who was flying this thing.

     

    Yeah it is cool they could fly over apple campus, but obviously people can now begin doing other things with this kind of technologies that could not be done before. It is make it far easier for creepy people to do creepy stuff.

  • Reply 10 of 27
    Originally Posted by 22July2013 View Post

    Boom! Street

    It's That Easy Street

    Incredible Street

     

    Insanely Street

    It Just Drives Avenue

    Magical Way

  • Reply 11 of 27
    maestro64 wrote: »
    For those techies who think these drones are cold and a great idea, think again. These things pose a huge privacy issue.

    I personally never thought about since all the drone videos I have seen were of public events and such and I never saw one live action. Well last night the wife and I had one of these buzzing our neighborhood during out walk. At first, I could barely hear it and took a little time to locate it, this one had blinking LEDs making it a little easier to locate in the sky. It mainly stayed above the tree tops, then whomever was controlling it, decided to buzz the house and flew it between the homes and such. Once the wife realize this thing had a camera on it and how easily if could fly up to a window she freaked out, to say the least. We looked all over and could not find the person who was flying this thing.

    Yeah it is cool they could fly over apple campus, but obviously people can now begin doing other things with this kind of technologies that could not be done before. It is make it far easier for creepy people to do creepy stuff.

    If it's in the airspace just above your property I say you'd be within your rights to capture it with a rope or net and keep it.
  • Reply 12 of 27
    I wonder what Apple will rename the streets?

    Apple Way?
    iDrive?
    Magic Street?

    "Having The Competition Running Around In Circles"

    jb2017 wrote: »

    Can't believe the slow reporting of this site myself. For speedy updates on Apple news, go to that site. That return here after a few days to read the user comments, because those are very informative here.

    What was the reason again that an URL gets pear-shaped when linking a 9to5 article?
  • Reply 13 of 27
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member

    The pace of progress is pretty incredible. This is gonna be one hell of a building. 

  • Reply 14 of 27

    I have created a 3D SketchUp model of the campus. I'll have to update the construction status based on these new photos.

     

    Not everything is included, but most of the interesting stuff is.

     

    https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=ua52b6bb5-b85d-42c7-bd93-2bd067d49029

     

    You can play the animation, select views or turn layers on/off for more control.

     

    If anyone has questions about the construction I have a pretty good idea what they are doing.

  • Reply 15 of 27
    After studying these aerial photographs, I see a weakness in its plans. A shaft leads right to its reactor core. If a small fighter could penetrate the outer defenses, it could get off a shot through one of the hypermatter reactor's vents.
  • Reply 16 of 27
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post





    If it's in the airspace just above your property I say you'd be within your rights to capture it with a rope or net and keep it.

    I was thinking exactly the same thing (except more destructively).  I wonder if there is case law on this.  There must be because RC planes and such have been around for decades.

  • Reply 17 of 27
    malax wrote: »
    I was thinking exactly the same thing (except more destructively).  I wonder if there is case law on this.  There must be because RC planes and such have been around for decades.

    I intentionally left out the gun option because discharging a firearm in a populated area is not something to consider.
  • Reply 18 of 27
    cwingrav wrote: »
    After studying these aerial photographs, I see a weakness in its plans. A shaft leads right to its reactor core. If a small fighter could penetrate the outer defenses, it could get off a shot through one of the hypermatter reactor's vents.

    How are we supposed to target something that small and avoid their turbo-lasers?
  • Reply 19 of 27
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    If it's in the airspace just above your property I say you'd be within your rights to capture it with a rope or net and keep it.

    If one did capture said intruder I wonder if there is a way to crack the software so as to be able to remove the owner's access and GPS tracking and take control with your own iPad or iPhone. If so, I see a whole new sport developing! :D

    I can imagine quadcopters with capture nets they drop over another quadcopter as they hijack it.
  • Reply 20 of 27
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

     

    Insanely Street

    It Just Drives Avenue

    Magical Way


    One More Street

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