Mikey Campbell
Apple has reportedly signed a lease for a 770,000-square-foot campus to be built in Sunnyvale, Calif., a stone's throw away from its Campus 2 "spaceship" currently under construction in Cupertino, expanding the company's already substantial presence in the area.
According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Apple inked a deal with Landbank Investments LLC to occupy the firm's forthcoming Central & Wolfe campus. While terms remain unknown, the publication believes Apple chose to lease, not buy, the development.
A website set up to showcase approved building designs reveals three organically shaped, multi-story structures that connect around a central courtyard to create what looks like a three-petaled flower. It is not yet known if Apple intends to stick with the proposed architecture, but as it stands, the design can support up to 3,000 employees.
In keeping with Apple's eco-friendly image, plans for the Sunnyvale campus call for small parks, walking paths and wide open spaces populated by local flora. Workers will be able to look out on the green expanse from curved windows reminiscent of those used in Campus 2's disc-shaped main structure, a striking design that has been coopted to some extent by major tech firms building out new Silicon Valley headquarters.
Developers have not yet set a concrete construction timeline for the Sunnyvale complex and it is currently not known when Apple plans to move in.
Interestingly, the Central & Wolfe project is located across the street from a seven-building development Apple is already leasing. That complex, called Sunnyvale Crossing, is comparatively smaller at about 290,000 square-feet and can reportedly accommodate some 1,450 workers.
Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
15 Comments
When you see this project, and everything else that Apple is currently working on, can you imagine how insanely busy the average day would be for Tim Cook?
Looks like an amazing building. It would be really helpful to have a satellite image showing its relation to Apple Campus 2. It's very similar to Apple Campus 2 (monumental yet still on a human scale, no straight lines, and a Pixaresque central space for spontaneous mingling and collaboration), but addresses a lot of the complaints with it, primarily that AC2 does not integrate well with the community and doesn't have green roof space. These criticisms are completely stupid and myopic, but at least I don't think we'll hear them this time around. I love the hints on the webpage: the quote by Walter Issackson, and then "A workplace designed to FOSTER ingenuity," and "The blending of art (humanities?), science (technology?), and nature."
Since Apple is leasing this building how much say do they have on the design? With all the real estate they're gobbling up clearly they have some big projects going on. MG Siegler says the Apple car project is the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley and Apple has more people working on it than almost every startup located in the Valley.
Whose the Jetson's obsessor?
I dub this the "Jetson's Campus". Very nice!