New Apple Park drone footage shows advancing landscaping, near-final solar array completio...

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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The latest drone footage of Apple Park shot in early March shows significant landscaping progress in only a few days, and emphasizes the enormity of the campus in comparison to the surrounding neighborhood.




Overall, the solar panel installation campus-wide is mostly finished, with the vast arrays on the garage done, and the main building's installation appearing complete.

Apple's satellite research and development facility structure is also finished, and a great deal of progress has been made on other peripheral and support buildings on the campus as well. In less than a week, the massive landscaping effort has made significant progress, with a grove of drought-resistant trees that was just started in the center of the main building at the time of the last footage more filled out.





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.
HBW1[Deleted User]
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 35
    robertwalterrobertwalter Posts: 276member
    What is below the big skylights about every 45°?  Stairwells?
  • Reply 2 of 35
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,040member
    robertwalter said:
    What is below the big skylights about every 45°?  Stairwells?
    Yes, that is most likely.

    If there is a major catastrophe that knocks out the building power, at least there's a chance that ambient light will be sufficient to guide employees to stairwells to exit the structure.
    Solijbdragon[Deleted User]
  • Reply 3 of 35
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member
    I have to believe this building is much larger in person than it looks in these videos. Its gotta be an absolute huge building. I'd love to visit this one day. 

    I really want to see this when all of the landscaping is finished, including the grass, trees, bushes, pond(s), etc. It'll take a while for things to grow in, but I bet it will be beautiful when it does. 
    cornchipbrian greenedredewtheckman
  • Reply 4 of 35
    huckdaisy1huckdaisy1 Posts: 64member
    There is still a lot of work to do.  When do they say employees will be ready to move in?
    JinTech
  • Reply 5 of 35
    LoneStar88LoneStar88 Posts: 325member
    mpantone said:
    robertwalter said:
    What is below the big skylights about every 45°?  Stairwells?
    Yes, that is most likely.

    If there is a major catastrophe that knocks out the building power, at least there's a chance that ambient light will be sufficient to guide employees to stairwells to exit the structure.
    Battery-powered emergency lights are most likely standard equipment as well.
  • Reply 6 of 35
    LoneStar88LoneStar88 Posts: 325member
    Look at the people in the entranceway. They're very tiny in relation to the full-height windows.
    macxpress said:
    I have to believe this building is much larger in person than it looks in these videos. Its gotta be an absolute huge building. I'd love to visit this one day. 

    I really want to see this when all of the landscaping is finished, including the grass, trees, bushes, pond(s), etc. It'll take a while for things to grow in, but I bet it will be beautiful when it does. 
  • Reply 7 of 35
    macseekermacseeker Posts: 545member
    Would like it if YouTube allowed Mac Safari users to view the video in 4K.
    brian green
  • Reply 8 of 35
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,040member
    LoneStar88 said:
    mpantone said:
    robertwalter said:
    What is below the big skylights about every 45°?  Stairwells?
    Yes, that is most likely.

    If there is a major catastrophe that knocks out the building power, at least there's a chance that ambient light will be sufficient to guide employees to stairwells to exit the structure.
    Battery-powered emergency lights are most likely standard equipment as well.
    Battery-powered lights can fail. Having sunlighted stairwells is a wiser design, especially in the event of evacuating thousands of people quickly during normal business hours.
  • Reply 9 of 35
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    huckdaisy1 said:
    There is still a lot of work to do.  When do they say employees will be ready to move in?
    The R&D building already looks occupied with what looks like normal employee cars in the parking lot. Since Apple Park proper has extensive covered parking, including under the ring, it's hard to know when there are Apple employees not working on the building working on sight. My assumption is that this has already happened because IT, at the very least, needs to get setup before nearly all—if not all—other departments are ready to start working at their desks.
  • Reply 10 of 35
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    mpantone said:
    robertwalter said:
    What is below the big skylights about every 45°?  Stairwells?
    Yes, that is most likely.

    If there is a major catastrophe that knocks out the building power, at least there's a chance that ambient light will be sufficient to guide employees to stairwells to exit the structure.
    How could their power get knocked out? They're self-sufficient. The combination of their solar power and their fuel cells ensures they'll still be running during the next big one or the next power grid failure.
    patchythepirate[Deleted User]
  • Reply 11 of 35
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    SpamSandwich said:
    mpantone said:
    robertwalter said:
    What is below the big skylights about every 45°?  Stairwells?
    Yes, that is most likely.

    If there is a major catastrophe that knocks out the building power, at least there's a chance that ambient light will be sufficient to guide employees to stairwells to exit the structure.
    How could their power get knocked out? They're self-sufficient. The combination of their solar power and their fuel cells ensures they'll still be running during the next big one or the next power grid failure.
    Are you seriously asking or are you suggesting that it's impossible to have a system malfunction or attack on a localized power grid?
  • Reply 12 of 35
    JinTechJinTech Posts: 1,022member
    There is still a lot of work to do.  When do they say employees will be ready to move in?
    Agreed. When all the orange construction cones and orange fences are gone and green grass planted and everything inside the ring gone, then this will look more likely done. Until then, I don't see that happening in the next twenty-six days.
  • Reply 13 of 35
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Whenever I watch these videos, I always remember this:


    Soli[Deleted User]
  • Reply 14 of 35
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,808member
    JinTech said:
    There is still a lot of work to do.  When do they say employees will be ready to move in?
    Agreed. When all the orange construction cones and orange fences are gone and green grass planted and everything inside the ring gone, then this will look more likely done. Until then, I don't see that happening in the next twenty-six days.
    You don't need landscaping to be finished to move in. The section of the building they want to use needs to be finished as well as other items like the section of parking lot, networking, etc. We don't know the status of the interior because we can't see it from drone videos but its apparently done enough for a few teams to start moving in....I would guess it would be the R&D team as @Soli said. That building looks to be just about if not 100% complete. 
    randominternetpersonStrangeDays
  • Reply 15 of 35
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,861administrator
    macseeker said:
    Would like it if YouTube allowed Mac Safari users to view the video in 4K.
    You can, just not in the embed.
  • Reply 16 of 35
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    macxpress said:
    JinTech said:
    There is still a lot of work to do.  When do they say employees will be ready to move in?
    Agreed. When all the orange construction cones and orange fences are gone and green grass planted and everything inside the ring gone, then this will look more likely done. Until then, I don't see that happening in the next twenty-six days.
    You don't need landscaping to be finished to move in. The section of the building they want to use needs to be finished as well as other items like the section of parking lot, networking, etc. We don't know the status of the interior because we can't see it from drone videos but its apparently done enough for a few teams to start moving in....I would guess it would be the R&D team as @Soli said. That building looks to be just about if not 100% complete. 
    One video or article from Dec or Jan showed that large wooden tables had been moved into the R&D building. While these were probably very large and possibly put in before they put in a final window pane or two, it could also mean they're already starting to get setup. If you're R&D, do you send your R&D teams to do some specific setup of tables, or do let the contractors handle it like you'd find in a call center with snap together kiosks. My guess is, the smaller the group, the more likely they're going to want to have more control over their environment setup.

     A little over 3 minutes into Sinfield's March 2017 video we see the R&D building. Except for some missing grass, this building looks fully functional. We see chair and tables, we only 2 trucks out of about 2 dozen vehicles, parking lot paved and painted, and there are no cranes, tractors, construction workers, or even white protectant film over any of the windows.


    randominternetpersonStrangeDays
  • Reply 17 of 35
    coolfactorcoolfactor Posts: 2,241member
    mpantone said:
    LoneStar88 said:
    mpantone said:
    robertwalter said:
    What is below the big skylights about every 45°?  Stairwells?
    Yes, that is most likely.

    If there is a major catastrophe that knocks out the building power, at least there's a chance that ambient light will be sufficient to guide employees to stairwells to exit the structure.
    Battery-powered emergency lights are most likely standard equipment as well.
    Battery-powered lights can fail. Having sunlighted stairwells is a wiser design, especially in the event of evacuating thousands of people quickly during normal business hours.

    Glow-in-the-dark cat eyes would be even wiser for when aliens block out the sun.
  • Reply 18 of 35
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member

    macseeker said:
    Would like it if YouTube allowed Mac Safari users to view the video in 4K.
    You can, just not in the embed.
    I can't. From youtube.com with Safari for Mac (10.0.3 (12602.4.8)), all I get is 1440p, not 2160p; yet, in Google Chrome I do get 2160p as an option. Do you have a VP codec plug-in installed?


    macseeker
  • Reply 19 of 35
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    HBW1 said:
    Looks like a football stadium to me!  :D
    Or a theatre in the round!
  • Reply 20 of 35
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,311member
    macxpress said:
    I have to believe this building is much larger in person than it looks in these videos. Its gotta be an absolute huge building. I'd love to visit this one day. 

    I really want to see this when all of the landscaping is finished, including the grass, trees, bushes, pond(s), etc. It'll take a while for things to grow in, but I bet it will be beautiful when it does. 
    This is a building that can hold 12,000 Employee's. It looks HUGE. Look at the houses around it. Look at the people can trucks around it. The place is huge. It's not just the UFO building but also the other large buildings. It's really quite amazing. What's even more amazing is Apple sticking with doing business in CA. and investing so much in these new buildings. Not just move to Texas or something. High taxes and Regulations are pretty bad in California.
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