LA Times critic disparages Apple Campus 2 as 'retrograde cocoon'

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  • Reply 61 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Michael Wilkie View Post


    A "crowded dirty inner city" is hardly the Architectural ideal. Most Architectural theorists envision cities that are far more organized and better-planned than any that exist today.



    That said, I don't like this guy's tone, either. What he should have said was something about how Apple is such a visionary, wealthy, and influential company that it perhaps should have used this new building as an opportunity to set a new standard in Architecture and urban planning. It would be possible, for example, that this new campus could serve as the foundation of a "city of the future", if you will.



    I like that point...in every generation there are trendsetters in multiple fields and in this day and age for the foreseeable future that trendsetter is Apple.



    Maybe the 3rd campus will be even MORE groundbreaking.
  • Reply 62 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ChrisNH View Post


    This media hack is obviously--like 95% of them--a bleeding Lib. Libs LOVE anything 'urban' and they HATE anything 'suburban.' It's why every Lib's dream is 'high-speed rail' that connects urban centers.



    first of all a high-speed rail is a great idea as if implemented correctly (which is the biggest issue) it could cut out on work commutes and highway clutter thus less polution which is a good thing whether you buy into Anthropomorphic global warming or not.



    second of all it seems like you have a lot of issues with teh liberalz...for no real reason...



    Fox talking points?
  • Reply 63 of 305
    takeotakeo Posts: 445member
    A horrible uninspired "design" that looks backwards about 80 years to bullishit utopian visions of Le Corbousier. I couldn't agree with with the LA Times critic.
  • Reply 64 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Michael Scrip View Post


    It may be a long walk around the diameter of the new building.... but Apple is probably smart enough to place cooperating departments close enough to each other to avoid long walks.



    It's gotta be more efficient than walking between buildings.



    Look at the old campus... how often do people from building IL3 meet with people all the way over in building B8 anyway? That's a car ride!







    I personally like the circle. And that image sheds a lot of light.
  • Reply 65 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cwfrederick View Post




    FWIW, I'm not a fan of modernist architecture, mainly for the reasons mentioned above, but I'm a big fan of Apple architecture, which, in my opinion, almost by itself justifies the modernist movement. Simple, austere structures, often reflecting the local environment, which happen to be perfect spaces to display Apple products.



    what works for a 5,000 sf building or storefront does not work for a freestanding building of millions of square feet. You don't like modern architecture? This is the most Modern building designed in decades. It represents the worst of a style I thought we had put behind us in the '70s.



    Imagine walking up to a seamless wall of glass 50' high, that is a mile long. That is not the kind of environment that we should be building. What looks good in a model or rendering can be horrible at the scale of real life.
  • Reply 66 of 305
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,616member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Takeo View Post


    A horrible uninspired "design" that looks backwards about 80 years to bullishit utopian visions of Le Corbousier. I couldn't agree with with the LA Times critic.



    And what have you designed recently of note? My guess is nothing. Now back on your hole.
  • Reply 67 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Michael Wilkie View Post


    In addition to that, culture and diversity are typically scarce in suburban areas relative to a city. It's considered to be a shame when company keeps all these talented, wealthy, and well-educated people cooped-up within the confines of a suburban setting, rather than mixed into a larger group that would greatly benefit from the presence of the type of people that work for a company like Apple.



    I think it would be stifling to work in a suburban office park. Not only are they the worst examples of sprawl architecture, but most are mind-numbingly bland. And they require cars to access them, and to get anywhere else.



    Sprawl architecture is hugely inefficient. Apple could have integrated the office into the built environment, but instead, chose to erect an impenetrable blank facade, the same from every angle, which screams inside/outside rather than adding to the neighborhood in any sort of welcoming way.



    They express their internal culture with the building, rather than adding to the city.
  • Reply 68 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ChrisNH View Post


    This media hack is obviously--like 95% of them--a bleeding Lib. Libs LOVE anything 'urban' and they HATE anything 'suburban.' It's why every Lib's dream is 'high-speed rail' that connects urban centers.



    If it weren't for "liberals" there would be no Apple. For an example of "conservative" business thinking, look at Microsoft and Dell.
  • Reply 69 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    That just sounds like an opinion... no theory involved.



    How about this stuff?





    The more interesting question is whether a place like Cupertino can maintain its low-density sprawl in future decades, as the Bay Area's population continues to grow,...





    ...the pastoral corporate campus "precludes the concentration of population that makes public transportation feasible for governments and users." And even if suburbs like Cupertino decide to make tentative moves in the direction of greater density and better transit, the architecture of the corporate estate ? the land it eats up and the automobile infrastructure it requires ? helps fix in place land-use patterns that are tough to dislodge.



    "If all you see in your workday are your co-workers and all you see out your window is the green perimeter of your carefully tended property," she writes, and you drive to and from work in the cocoon of your private car, "the notion of a shared responsibility in the collective metropolitan realm is predictably distant."



    ...a nation that from its earliest decades loved "to turn its back on cities and stake a claim on the suburban pastoral idyll ? isolated, proprietary, verdant, and disengaged from civic space." Those adjectives, of course, perfectly describe the planned Apple headquarters. There are unmistakable echoes in Apple's new building of the headquarters of Merck, the pharmaceutical giant, in suburban New Jersey,
  • Reply 70 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    I think it would be stifling to work in a suburban office park. Not only are they the worst examples of sprawl architecture, but most are mind-numbingly bland. And they require cars to access them, and to get anywhere else.



    Sprawl architecture is hugely inefficient. Apple could have integrated the office into the built environment, but instead, chose to erect an impenetrable blank facade, the same from every angle, which screams inside/outside rather than adding to the neighborhood in any sort of welcoming way.



    They express their internal culture with the building, rather than adding to the city.





    Cupertino is not an urban environment. Given the existing surroundings, the new Apple headquarters are a dramatic improvement, aesthetically and environmentally. Aside from replacing ugly, cookie cutter concrete slabs with beautiful glass and steel, note how acres of asphalt will be replaced with green spaces as parking is moved underground.



    http://tinyurl.com/5tzzlzu



    The architectural ideal of an efficiently planned, urban environment incorporating green spaces is great, but requires you start with an urban setting and the collaboration of civic, business and community leaders - a combination that's largely nonexistent in most US cities (with NYC demonstrating a few promising examples.)



    It's unfair and unrealistic to expect a single company - even Apple - to singlehandedly create a revolutionary urban community, especially when it's headquarters are away from any urban areas.
  • Reply 71 of 305
    "People will feel out of sorts, disoriented, and uncomfortable" I feel like that everywhere I go.
  • Reply 72 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post


    What a prick. Did anyone actually ask for his two-bit opinion? That idiot would have raised hell over the erection of King Tut's tomb and said that a sand mound a simple headstone was all that was needed. I think that circular headquarters is very attractive and possibly an early design by one of the Ringworld Engineers.



    you have no idea where King Tut was buried, do you? Hint, it's not a pyramid.



    I personally like the mothership design, but let's all be honest, this is a Steve Jobs vanity project. Period.
  • Reply 73 of 305
    what do you expect from a Yale B.A?
  • Reply 74 of 305
    I love the campus, the number of trees and open space and the low profile way this building sits in it's faux natural surroundings but this critic couldn't be more correct. The overall building design looks like an idea of the "future" from the American 1950's. It may be the case that the actual building seen in real life with it's high end construction materials and architectural details may create a different effect than seeing the donut from overhead but there is not much other than hope and "trust me, it'll be awesome" to indicate that that would be the case.
  • Reply 75 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Conrail View Post


    you have no idea where King Tut was buried, do you? Hint, it's not a pyramid.



    I personally like the mothership design, but let's all be honest, this is a Steve Jobs vanity project. Period.



    And unfortunately, Steve is great at designing objects, not environments. This building will be an object, on a scale almost unheard of in history. Buildings, BTW, are not objects, they are environments.



    I wonder if Steve's mortality has influenced this design. It appears to be a sort of "monument."
  • Reply 76 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    ...a nation that from its earliest decades loved "to turn its back on cities and stake a claim on the suburban pastoral idyll ? isolated, proprietary, verdant, and disengaged from civic space." Those adjectives, of course, perfectly describe the planned Apple headquarters. There are unmistakable echoes in Apple's new building of the headquarters of Merck, the pharmaceutical giant, in suburban New Jersey,



    I was also immediately reminded of the Merck headquarters. How sad.
  • Reply 77 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by strask View Post


    I love the campus, the number of trees and open space and the low profile way this building sits in it's faux natural surroundings but this critic couldn't be more correct. The overall building design looks like an idea of the "future" from the American 1950's. It may be the case that the actual building seen in real life with it's high end construction materials and architectural details may create a different effect than seeing the donut from overhead but there is not much other than hope and "trust me, it'll be awesome" to indicate that that would be the case.



    Not to be mean yu do have points, but isn't "trust me, it will be awesome." What made Apple what it is g'day?
  • Reply 78 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    I guess you have to presuppose that the feeling of a metropolitan realm (which I read as a concrete canyon) is a good thing.



    I'm not sure where it has the suburban feel, because even those are littered with cookie-cutter houses with a circuitous layout. The "spaceship" is a more effective use of the land than the existing buildings and you get a bonus of a lot more and better green space.



    I couldn't disagree with you more on that. Metropolitan in this context is building a community, rather than isolating the campus from the community-- literally turning inward to a protected plaza. The complete (historical) disregard for public transit from the city of Cupertino is part of the problem, but the campus could have worked much better with what urban fabric exists in the area.



    Logistically, however, I'm not sure there are many other realistic types of solutions. You need the protected quadrangle if you want the secrecy. You want a single structure if you need the flexibility that large footprints allow. From a security and internal culture standpoint, you want to keep people inside the circle.
  • Reply 79 of 305
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    Quote:

    The critic also went on to challenge Apple's assertion that the campus would be green, arguing instead that the site's "dependence on the car" undermines environmentally friendly efforts.



    An LA Times critic complaining about "dependence on the car" has to be the height of hypocracy.
  • Reply 80 of 305
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ChrisNH View Post


    This media hack is obviously--like 95% of them--a bleeding Lib. Libs LOVE anything 'urban' and they HATE anything 'suburban.' It's why every Lib's dream is 'high-speed rail' that connects urban centers.



    Obviously the world embraces both; why is everything in the mind of right-winger all about name-calling and false choices? Urban life isn't for everyone; neither is suburban or rural. Real estate in Manhattan is the most expensive of anywhere in North America - tells you something about what the market - i.e., people's demand- likes. The world needs both high-speed rail and freeways, get over your false polarizing.
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