Apple provides additional details, renderings for Cupertino campus project - Page 2

Originally Posted by SolipsismX

I'm told there is an identical one in Antarctica...

Originally Posted by Drax7

I am afraid this building will make them feel too self important nd they will lose their
Grit. Too comfy, too happy, too fat and no drive to be creative.

Originally Posted by cvaldes1831


If you're insinuating that Apple should be planting apple orchards, well, you're wrong.

Apricots and other stone fruits are the historic crops in this part of Santa Clara County. ... Apples were never a commonly planted crop in western Santa Clara County.

Originally Posted by Windsor Smith

Yeah, I've lived in Silicon Valley for 25 years, and I've never seen any evidence of apple orchards -- just the pitted fruits, like cvaldes1831 said.

However, despite what was reported in the article, Apple's latest landscaping plan for the site shows more types of fruit trees than just apricots; there will also be cherries, plums, olives, and, yes, apples.

Originally Posted by island hermit

No mangoes?

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil

They also won't be selling frozen yogurt in the Apple cafeteria. Nor cold sandwiches of ice and cream.

Originally Posted by ascii

I wonder if people can co-operate in virtual space soon, making big office buildings out of date.

Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody

It's actually a recently identified trend, so in fact, this might be the last of the big office buildings. Kind of the peak of an era.

Either way, if this thing gets built, it's likely to be one of those buildings that will be preserved for the ages. I could see kids and tourists taking tours of it long after Apple is gone.

Also, you gotta figure there will be a giant bronze statue of Steve Jobs somewhere on the grounds at some point.

Originally Posted by sunilraman

That's OK, here's the next Apple building, they will travel to the edge of the galaxy to study alien technology to pack 2000x the pixels into an iPod touch. It's the only way to prevent copycats.

Originally Posted by island hermit

There will be a button on the statue. When pressed, Steve will say, "An iPod, a phone and an internet communicator...".

Originally Posted by SolipsismX

If you're going to have an interact statue you might as well cut out a few hundred years and get right to a "a father, a son, and holy ghost."

Originally Posted by island hermit

Would that be Steve, the iPhone and the Android operating system (or will that be the unholy ghost)?

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil

… Does no one else see something incredibly wrong here?

Originally Posted by Lochias

It's to match the 555 feet 5 and 0.5 inch height of the Washington Monument across the river.

Originally Posted by digitalclips

The mystisism around pentagrams didn't come into it then?

Originally Posted by digitalclips

Serious question ... The mystisism around pentagrams didn't come into it then?

Originally Posted by Drax7

I am afraid this building will make them feel too self important nd they will lose their
Grit. Too comfy, too happy, too fat and no drive to be creative.

Originally Posted by cvaldes1831

He selected apricot trees for a reason. Just like pretty much everything else Steve did.

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

It'll have the opposite effect. They'll be immersed in creativity results more than ever.

Originally Posted by Windsor Smith

Yeah, I've lived in Silicon Valley for 25 years, and I've never seen any evidence of apple orchards -- just the pitted fruits, like cvaldes1831 said.

However, despite what was reported in the article, Apple's latest landscaping plan for the site shows more types of fruit trees than just apricots; there will also be cherries, plums, olives, and, yes, apples.

Originally Posted by GadgetCanada

Solar panels are great until there is a short and they catch on fire. When there is a short in the wiring under the panels, there is no way to turn off power from the solar panels. Since you can't turn off the sun, the only way to stop the short is to cover the solar panels with blankets which is what fire fighters try to do. If it's not covered, the fire spreads quickly and shorts out the other panels spreading the problem further and faster.

Originally Posted by Ireland

I am currently designing a circular house for myself with a floor level (just one floor) 10' below ground.

With just 10' of the home (the main central room) visible above ground, giving the exterior of the home a modest, neat and minimal dome-like appearance, with the main 50' circular underground living area a 20' interior ceiling height at the center of the house with a 15' structural glass window in the center of it to bring in natural daylight. The whole house will be constructed using poured concrete formwork giving every wall an 18" waterproof thickness which not only keeps the home very dry, but regulates the interior temperature in winter and summer. This structure will be built to last centuries.

I'm not an architect nor do I have the money to build it yet; I reckon it will cost around 4-7M, but I will have the money to build it someday and thy will be done.

It will having one floating bedroom overlooking the main room 8' above the main floor area covering about 1/10 of the main area below with a 1' wall stopping you falling off the edge containing basically a large bed, a locker and a wardrobe along the opposite exterior wall. Then an additional piano mezzanine for playing piano while looking out one of the three curved windows in the structure with your eves at outdoor ground-level as another floating structure with a 1' wall around it located at another point above the the main large room. The bedroom will have floating concrete stairs up to it with each step as a separate wall-anchored unit. There will be no handrail. The piano mezzanine will feature no stairs as there will be a hidden lift that rises from the ground to transport budding musicians up to play it.

The two large spare en-suite bedrooms, the main bathroom, the W.C., the utility room, the kitchen and the modest swimming pool will all be underground and off the main room with each given a 10' glass structural ceiling that will be flush with the exterior grass and capable of supporting the weight of a ride-on lawnmower.

The main James Bond-esque living room will feature a snooker table, a centrally located marble dining table with 8 colored chairs, a TV sofa entertainment area, a stairs to the floating bedroom, a lift to the piano mezzanine and a breakfast bar area all over a polished concrete underfoot-heated floor. All rooms off the central area will have regular door-width entrances with no actual doors, and the kitchen will have an arch door entrance the width of its room. The interior walls will retain the unpainted yet smooth concrete look with soft-textured colorful furnishings peppered throughout the home to wonderfully contrast the solid minimal industrial looking structure and its clean lines.

The home will be entered via tunnel from the drive-down-in underground triple-garage area located around 40 feet from it. The home will be complimented with the a minimal but beautiful Japanese garden.

That's the plan and I'm sticking to it.

Originally Posted by David Andersen

The word you want is 'renderings'. 'Renders' is only a noun in a very specific context, and this isn't it. Otherwise interesting writes.

Originally Posted by GadgetCanada

Solar panels are great until there is a short and they catch on fire. When there is a short in the wiring under the panels, there is no way to turn off power from the solar panels. Since you can't turn off the sun, the only way to stop the short is to cover the solar panels with blankets which is what fire fighters try to do. If it's not covered, the fire spreads quickly and shorts out the other panels spreading the problem further and faster. With the entire roof of this huge building covered in solar panels, I really hope they design some kind of motorized covering or foam system to block sun to the solar panels. If they don't, the resulting fire would do massive damage.

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

Hmmm.... someone else had the idea first:
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/spon...ction-ornament

Kidding, kidding..... just couldn't resist!

Your idea sounds very intriguing.

Originally Posted by F1Ferrari

Just out of fairness, has Samsung announced a new HQ recently? I was just wondering if they had something, maybe oval in shape, in mind...

Originally Posted by aaarrrgggh

I was pretty surprised to see the base isolation-- it seems out of favor for this type of building. But, I guess you don't really mave many options for lateral shear walls to tie everything together. Could it possibly be acting as a single seismic structure with just expansion joints?

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil

Just about the freaking coolest building ever. And certainly the coolest office building.

Originally Posted by Galbi

You need to get out more. Search Dubai, UAE.

Originally Posted by cvaldes1831

If you're insinuating that Apple should be planting apple orchards, well, you're wrong.

Apricots and other stone fruits are the historic crops in this part of Santa Clara County. The street that connects Apple's current HQ on 1 Infinite Loop to De Anza Boulevard is Mariani Avenue; the Apple HQ used to be on Mariani Ave (on the other side of De Anza Blvd) in the company's formative years. The road was named after a farming family (of Croatian origin, if I remember correctly) that used to have orchards in the area.

Today's one of that family's descendants is still farming, albeit in Morgan Hill: Andy Mariani (http://www.andysorchard.com). He's a stone fruit expert. Much of the fruit farming has moved to south Santa Clara County where property is cheaper and more plentiful, however the entire area is superb for stone fruit cultivation.

Three miles north of Cupertino in Santa Clara is the historic C.J. Olson fruit stand. The enormous cherry orchards have long been built over, there's a small heritage cherry orchard in Sunnyvale. In Saratoga -- a few miles south of Cupertino -- the plums were rather famous. There's a heritage stone fruit orchard around the Saratoga Public Library.

The Marianis and Olsons were part of a wave of immigrants in the late 19th century who planted fruit orchards (mostly stone fruit) and vineyards (mostly for wine production). Apples were never a commonly planted crop in western Santa Clara County.

If you walk into a house in west Santa Clara County that was built in the Fifties and Sixties (like an Eichler), there's a good chance there's a heritage stone fruit tree or two in the backyard or maybe a newer one that replaced the original tree(s).

Even today, apricot production is getting squeezed. Brentwood, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Hollister: those are today's quality apricot growing areas, although many growers have moved away from the fabulous Blenheim apricot to other more commercially viable cultivars.

Planting apricot trees in Cupertino is a tip of the hat to the settlers from 100-120 years ago.

Remember that Steve Jobs grew up in Cupertino, probably would have walked by apricot orchards on his way to Homestead High.

He selected apricot trees for a reason. Just like pretty much everything else Steve did.

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil

Apple's new office building is regional practicality combined with simplicity in a unique form.

Originally Posted by Tune