Latest Apple Park drone footage demonstrates scope of massive landscaping project

Posted:
in General Discussion
The latest drone footage from over Apple Park shows massive improvement in many aspects, but still a long way to go before the campus is fully complete.




The latest footage from Apple Park appears to have been shot only a few days after the last drone footage from a different videographer. But, even in the few elapsed days, there is notable progress on the landscaping and the concrete work around the Steve Jobs Theater.

As with the last video, it does appear that there are more vehicles and workers on the site during mid-day hours than previously seen, with Apple perhaps pushing more to complete the project, which is now many months overdue from original estimates.





The footage demonstrates the massive amount of trees needed for the project -- as before it started, the area was Hewlett Packard's land, and was essentially completely paved over. Apple's demand for trees is reportedly putting pressure on the local market, forcing contractors to source from outside California. The final tree count is expected to approach 9,000, with apple, apricot, cherry, and persimmon trees dotting the landscape.

On Feb. 22, Apple officially named the "spaceship" campus under construction. The entire facility is now called "Apple Park," with the 20-foot tall and 165 foot in diameter glass auditorium honoring one of the founders of the company and named the "Steve Jobs Theater."

An environmentally-friendly design was paramount to Jobs's vision, and Apple's related Phase 2 project adds additional workspace adjacent to the main headquarters, and includes a small data center powered by on-site the on-site solar farm, fuel cells, and other sources of renewable energy.

A new micro-grid installed on the campus is reportedly capable of delivering 17 megawatts of power from solar alone, and handling about 75 percent of the facility's power requirements. The solar installation is supplemented by Bloom Energy-provided fuel cells, similar to those installed at the North Carolina data center.



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Beautiful project. Wake me up when it opens.
    edited May 2017
  • Reply 2 of 29
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    Another great video by Duncan, and I'm glad that he took some footage of the old barn.
    stantheman
  • Reply 3 of 29
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,311member
    Watching Steve Jobs talk about this, 80% landscaped? I don't think so. Most of the parking underground? Nope! there's what 1 or 2 parking buildings, plus the Theater and whatever else. All you see when SJ is talking about the product is the UFO and that's it. Pretty much everywhere else it's green. So what's up with that?
  • Reply 4 of 29
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    jbdragon said:
    Watching Steve Jobs talk about this, 80% landscaped? I don't think so. Most of the parking underground? Nope! there's what 1 or 2 parking buildings, plus the Theater and whatever else. All you see when SJ is talking about the product is the UFO and that's it. Pretty much everywhere else it's green. So what's up with that?
    Is that a serious post, because, to me, it reads like you're saying that most of the parking isn't underground and that only about 20% of the old HP property isn't covered by structures.
    edited May 2017 patchythepiratepscooter63stantheman
  • Reply 5 of 29
    launfalllaunfall Posts: 50member
    Great footage but, oh my God, the worst music imaginable.  Man...do something about your soundtrack!
  • Reply 6 of 29
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    launfall said:
    Great footage but, oh my God, the worst music imaginable.  Man...do something about your soundtrack!
    Great footage and every time I watch a video of this project I am awestruck. The scale is mind blowing. And the speed that the whole thing is taking shape is incredible. I wonder how closely it is to the original budget.

    The video editing however, leaves a lot to be desired. About as bad as it gets, imo. Not that it matters  :o
    stantheman
  • Reply 7 of 29
    shapetablesshapetables Posts: 201member
    "Hey Siri, send me the location of all iPhones running drone control apps near me."
    OK, here are the iPhones controlling drones near Apple Park. Like me to lock them for Genius-Bar-only recovery?
    "Yes."
    OK, done.
    <drones begin crashing out of sky into trees and embankments>
     :D 
  • Reply 8 of 29
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member
    As with the last video, it does appear that there are more vehicles and workers on the site during mid-day hours than previously seen

    It always seemed to me quite the opposite - that there were far too few workers seen in these videos.   That combined with the lack of heavy traffic on the adjoining highways made me think that most of these videos were shot on Sundays.   Do we know for sure that this video was shot on a weekday?




    StrangeDays
  • Reply 9 of 29
    gmgravytraingmgravytrain Posts: 882member
    I'd think landscaping would go pretty quickly if they used grass sod and lots of workers. I figure a couple of weeks could do the job with enough people laying it down.
  • Reply 10 of 29
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    I'd think landscaping would go pretty quickly if they used grass sod and lots of workers. I figure a couple of weeks could do the job with enough people laying it down.
    1) I think threre's about 8 football fields that need to be covered. If they have to source trees from other states, will they be able to get enough of the same kind of sod in that quantity?

    2) I've been informed (and as shown on the original plans) that it's wild grasses that are easy to plan, don't need special irrigation and otherwise easy to maintain.
  • Reply 11 of 29
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member
    jbdragon said:
    Watching Steve Jobs talk about this, 80% landscaped? I don't think so. Most of the parking underground? Nope! there's what 1 or 2 parking buildings, plus the Theater and whatever else. All you see when SJ is talking about the product is the UFO and that's it. Pretty much everywhere else it's green. So what's up with that?
    Nobody said every single car would be under the main structure or under ground. How do you know the ratio of parking above vs underground? Let me see your figures. Same goes for the landscape. Let me see your figures and what you think the percentages are? How are you getting these numbers?
    pscooter63
  • Reply 12 of 29
    JinTechJinTech Posts: 1,022member
    An observation and a curious question...

    1. Besides the roads to the parking garage and the garage itself, it appears there will be no pavement/gravel at this campus. 

    2. Does anyone know what the shack (compared to the campus) is next to the gym? As pictured below.

  • Reply 13 of 29
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    JinTech said:
    Does anyone know what the shack (compared to the campus) is next to the gym? As pictured below.

    [image]
    It's the 101 year old  Glendenning Barn.



    edited May 2017 pscooter63ireland
  • Reply 14 of 29
    JinTech said:
    An observation and a curious question...

    1. Besides the roads to the parking garage and the garage itself, it appears there will be no pavement/gravel at this campus. 

    2. Does anyone know what the shack (compared to the campus) is next to the gym? As pictured below.

    The old "shack" is a barn that was original to the property. They took it apart board by board and reassembled it at that location. I'll look for a link to it. 
    JinTech
  • Reply 15 of 29
    I see someone beat me to it.

    Here's a another link to its history

    http://www.mercurynews.com/2014/12/26/apple-to-save-historic-barn-on-site-of-new-cupertino-campus/
    JinTech
  • Reply 16 of 29
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    paxman said:
    launfall said:
    Great footage but, oh my God, the worst music imaginable.  Man...do something about your soundtrack!
    Great footage and every time I watch a video of this project I am awestruck. The scale is mind blowing. And the speed that the whole thing is taking shape is incredible. I wonder how closely it is to the original budget.

    The video editing however, leaves a lot to be desired. About as bad as it gets, imo. Not that it matters  :o
    Terrible brain-wrenching transitions. What's wrong with the nervous system of someone who edits video like that?  
    paxmaniqatedoJinTech
  • Reply 17 of 29
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member
    JinTech said:
    An observation and a curious question...

    1. Besides the roads to the parking garage and the garage itself, it appears there will be no pavement/gravel at this campus. 

    2. Does anyone know what the shack (compared to the campus) is next to the gym? As pictured below.

    The old "shack" is a barn that was original to the property. They took it apart board by board and reassembled it at that location. I'll look for a link to it. 
    Hmmm interesting! I wonder what Apple will do with this? Amazing it hasn't been torn down by someone else before Apple got a hold of this property. 
    JinTech
  • Reply 18 of 29
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    flaneur said:
    paxman said:
    launfall said:
    Great footage but, oh my God, the worst music imaginable.  Man...do something about your soundtrack!
    Great footage and every time I watch a video of this project I am awestruck. The scale is mind blowing. And the speed that the whole thing is taking shape is incredible. I wonder how closely it is to the original budget.

    The video editing however, leaves a lot to be desired. About as bad as it gets, imo. Not that it matters  :o
    Terrible brain-wrenching transitions. What's wrong with the nervous system of someone who edits video like that?  
    Ha ha  :D
  • Reply 19 of 29
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,311member
    I'm just wondering, isn't their laws against flying over private property with a drone?

    Some of the other rules like Drone pilots are prohibited from flying drones over people or where property may be endangered. Drones must stay in visual line of sight (no use of VR goggles as primary means to “See and Avoid”)

    Watching the video, it's going over people, or at least close enough to people. Also some of the shots look to be out of line of sight. I'm just saying,....
  • Reply 20 of 29
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,040member
    zoetmb said:
    As with the last video, it does appear that there are more vehicles and workers on the site during mid-day hours than previously seen

    It always seemed to me quite the opposite - that there were far too few workers seen in these videos.   That combined with the lack of heavy traffic on the adjoining highways made me think that most of these videos were shot on Sundays.   Do we know for sure that this video was shot on a weekday?
    The traffic on I-280 looks fairly normal for noontime on a weekday (the shadows are pretty short which is why I'm guessing noon).

    Plus, there's more southbound traffic than northbound, also quite typical for this time of day midweek.
    edited May 2017
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