Apple’s Next-Gen Campus Set To Open In April

The construction of Apple’s massive spaceship-like headquarters, dubbed Apple Park, in Cupertino, CA, is almost complete. Apple Park is now set to open in April 2017. Designed in collaboration with Foster+ Partners, Apple Park will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy.

The shiny new Apple Park, which looks like a giant spaceship, is spread over 175 acres of rolling parkland and is one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the world. The site features a 17-megawatt rooftop solar array that Apple said is “one of the largest on-site solar energy installations in the world.”

The newest headquarters of Apple will be ready for employees to begin occupying in April. The process of moving more than 12,000 people will take over six months and construction of the buildings and parkland is scheduled to continue through the summer.

“Steve’s vision for Apple stretched far beyond his time with us. He intended Apple Park to be the home of innovation for generations to come,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. “The workspaces and parkland are designed to inspire our team as well as benefit the environment. We [have] achieved one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the world and the campus will run entirely on renewable energy.”

Jobs would have turned 62 this past February. In honor of his memory and his enduring influence on Apple and the world, the theater at Apple park is named the Steve Jobs Theater. Set to open later this year, the entrance to the 1,000-seat auditorium is a 20-foot-tall glass cylinder, 165 feet in diameter, supporting a metallic carbon-fiber roof.

“Steve was exhilarated and inspired by the California landscape, by its light and its expansiveness. It was his favorite setting for thought. Apple Park captures his spirit uncannily well,” said Laurence Powell Jobs, former CEO of Apple, Inc and the widow of Jobs.

Apple Park is transforming miles of asphalt sprawl into a haven of green space in the heart of Santa Clara Valley. It replaces 5 million square feet of asphalt and concrete with grassy fields and over 9,000 native and drought-resistant trees. The campus’ ring-shaped, 2.8 million-square-foot main building is encased entirely in the world’s largest panels of curved glass.

Apple Park will also include a visitors center with an Apple store and café open to the public, a 100,000-square-foot fitness center for Apple employees, secure research and development facilities and the Steve Jobs Theater. The parkland offer two miles of walking and running paths plus an orchard, meadow and pond within the ring’s interior grounds.

“Steve invested so much of his energy in creating and supporting vital, creative environments. We have approached the design, engineering and making of our new campus with the same enthusiasm and design principles that characterize our products,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “Connecting extraordinarily advanced buildings with rolling parkland creates a wonderfully open environment for people to create, collaborate and work together.”

Built at a cost of $5 billion, Apple Park will run one of the largest on-site solar energy installations in the world. It is also the site of the world’s largest naturally ventilated building, projected to require no heating or air conditioning for nine months of the year.

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