Photo of Steve Jobs Theater construction show leather seats with integrated power outlets

AppleInsider

A photo taken during construction of Apple's Steve Jobs Theater reveals the comfy leather seats media and employees will be enjoying in less than a week, when company executives are expected to take the stage to unveil a host of new products.

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Taken sometime this summer, and posted to Twitter by Apple fan Giammarco Nesci in July, the photo above shows contractors unboxing and installing custom leather seating in Apple Park's Steve Jobs Theater.

Upon closer inspection, the bench seats appear to contain hidden wiring, perhaps integrated into what looks to be foldable armrests. While not confirmed, the photo suggests Apple built power outlets into the chairs so audience members can juice up their laptops and other devices during presentations. A report from Bloomberg earlier this week claims the cost of each seat comes out to about $14,000.

Nesci later posted a separate image showing construction on the large circular glass cylinder that crowns the underground auditorium. A much closer view than has been provided in past "spy shots," the photo reveals ceiling panels with recessed downlighting similar to those used in Apple stores.

Both images line up with other photos of construction work at Steve Jobs Theater posted to Instagram last week by MacMagazine. Like Nesci's shot focusing on seat installation, the Instagram pictures show an almost complete interior full of custom wood paneling, stairs, railings and other fittings. The set also includes a look at the stage, on which CEO Tim Cook is expected to debut new iPhone models next week.

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Though other areas of Apple Park have yet to be completed, most notably landscaping, Apple has wrapped construction on Steve Jobs Theater ahead of its Sept. 12 special event. The structure sports a unique freestanding glass foyer and all the trappings one would expect from the world's most valuable tech company. For example, the building's elevators rotate as they rise and lower, allowing passengers to enter in one direction and exit facing another.

Apple last week invited members of the press to a special event at which the company is expected to unveil new iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV models. AppleInsider will be covering the event live from Steve Jobs Theater on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 10 a.m. Pacific.

randominternetperson

How stole these pictures of the man cave in my basement??

macxpress

$14,000/seat? Must be cheap leather... 

jbdragon

Each seat at $14K is misleading. As they look like a long single bench. I'm sure each custom made for Apple and at that roundness. How many people fit on a single bench?

anome

Makes sense to have power outlets. If they're going to use it for seminars and training in between product launches, people are going to want to plug in their devices to take notes. It has the side benefit that the invited guests to Tuesday's event will be able to charge their devices while they live tweet and blog it.

andrewj5790

anome said:

Makes sense to have power outlets. If they're going to use it for seminars and training in between product launches, people are going to want to plug in their devices to take notes. It has the side benefit that the invited guests to Tuesday's event will be able to charge their devices while they live tweet and blog it.

It may be pedantic of me but I doubt the power was put in with training in mind. The whole theater was constructed with major product launches in mind. 

robjn

You write:
A report from Bloomberg earlier this week claims each seat cost some $14,000

Not exactly, that figure is calculated by dividing the total estimated cost of the entire theater by the number of seats.

ihatescreennames

robjn said:

You write:
A report from Bloomberg earlier this week claims each seat cost some $14,000

Not exactly, that figure is calculated by dividing the total estimated cost of the entire theater by the number of seats.

Here's the quote from Bloomberg:

"Given the theater's 1,000-person capacity, one engineer said back in March that the building's budget meant each leather seat had cost Apple the equivalent of$14,000 apiece."

I tend to agree with you.  I take it the same way I would take "The wedding reception is going to cost $500 per plate". The plate and the meal don't actually cost $500, it includes the costs of the facility, the staff and a bunch of other things.  It's just a simple way to express the overall cost without being too wordy.

Edit: A better analogy is to compare it to building anything.  The costs are frequently broken down to $/square foot, let's say $500.  Any specific square foot likely didn't cost $500, but the whole project can be expressed as cost/square foot.  The engineer referenced in the Bloomberg article likely was just taking the total construction cost/seat.

welshdog

This theater seems very small compared to the venues used for past product announcements.

Anyone know?

dsd

Happy to see that no naugas were hurt in the making of these seats.

bobolicious

...leather is arguably 'sustainably' biodegradable, at what costs (human, animal, carbon, other) yet as I understand it so is organic cotton, hemp, bamboo, etc... so many questions still...

mattinoz

robjn said:

You write:
A report from Bloomberg earlier this week claims each seat cost some $14,000

Not exactly, that figure is calculated by dividing the total estimated cost of the entire theater by the number of seats.

Which seating capacity thou?
Looks like its geared for two modes armrests down to fit lots of people in. Armrests up for smaller meetings give everyone space to work.

Still $14mil for just that building given size and quality level seems pretty cheap for 1000 people.

suddenly newton

macxpress said:

$14,000/seat? Must be cheap leather... 

Apple, always taking advantage of their suppliers, who can barely make a profit.

Soli

jbdragon said:

Each seat at $14K is misleading. As they look like a long single bench.

Is that a serious post?

Soli

robjn said:

You write:
A report from Bloomberg earlier this week claims each seat cost some $14,000

Not exactly, that figure is calculated by dividing the total estimated cost of the entire theater by the number of seats.

That is what is meant. I can't imagine that anyone would read that and think that the cost is referring to the cost of the padding directly below one's ass over the cost of the facility divided by the number of people it seats.

Soli

welshdog said:

This theater seems very small compared to the venues used for past product announcements.

Anyone know?

The number of seats for other venues have ranged from 300 to just 1,600 seats.

• Apple Town Hall ≈ 300
• Yerba Buena Center ≈ 760
• Steve Jobs Theater ≈1000
• Bill Graham Center ≈ 1600 (for iPhone events)

You have to assume that with all the space and planning that Apple didn't make a mistake with how many media outlets they'd need to plan for for many years to come. I think what we saw in the past at Bill Graham was a lot of Apple employees getting invites to help fill the seats. This will probably suck for them, but I wouldn't expect that the event will have any less media coverage than in the past, if that's your concern.

Soli

andrewj5790 said:

anome said:

Makes sense to have power outlets. If they're going to use it for seminars and training in between product launches, people are going to want to plug in their devices to take notes. It has the side benefit that the invited guests to Tuesday's event will be able to charge their devices while they live tweet and blog it.

It may be pedantic of me but I doubt the power was put in with training in mind. The whole theater was constructed with major product launches in mind. 

There is talk that it could be rented out for other events. No reason why the theater can't run Hamlet in the evenings and weekends for a a couple months when Apple doesn't need full access to it. I'm not saying that will happen, but it's sufficiently separated from the main building, near the parking structure, and could recoup its cost over the years.

LukeCage

Apple does have good taste even a somewhat finished look of the theatre looks good.

SpamSandwich

dsd said:

Happy to see that no naugas were hurt in the making of these seats.

Funny/weird true story: I actually met and spoke with the guy who invented Naugahyde. When I met him he was working on a software program that would maximize the use of sheet metal in aircraft design.

macky the macky

The leather comes from Japanese Kobe cows that have spent their entire lives being massaged by nubile Japanese girls...

bestkeptsecret

I hope DED scored an invite.