Mike Wuerthele
The latest drone footage of Apple Park shows what appears to be complete landscaping with a full pond inside the circular headquarters, and has the closest shots of the large atrium doors yet seen.
The video opens with a view of the newly opened visitor's center. It then cuts to a closeup of the massive doors to enter the main "spaceship" building.
All told, the entire campus is much more adorned with plant life than in previous footage, and as expected has progressed in other ways. For instance, the circular pond in the center of the campus is full, with paths up to and around it now complete.
Not all of the campus is as finished as the main buiding. There is still much in the way of construction activity near the fitness center, with terrain sculpting still ongoing.
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."
Before the massive construction effort started, the area was Hewlett Packard's land, and was essentially completely paved over. Apple's demand for trees is reportedly putting pressure on the local market, forcing contractors to source from outside California. The final tree count is expected to approach 9,000, with apple, apricot, cherry, and persimmon trees dotting the landscape.
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 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.
Apple held its first official event in Steve Jobs Theater on Sept. 12 with the unveiling of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X.
AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
14 Comments
Steve would be proud
1) This is coming along nicely. The fountain still isn't operational, but I wonder if they'll wait for the rest of the heavy machinery to leave the inner ring before they finally get that going so it will limit dirt and debris from getting in the water.
2) I'm assuming that the area between the ring and Steve Jobs Theater has all the trees it's going to get. Should we expect native grasses so that it has an unobstructed view of the ring from inside the theater?
This might be the first time a "If Steve Jobs were alive…" statement sounded reasonable.
Stunning, who would not be inspired working in a place like that....
Was this video official Apple footage? It looked like the drone flew very close to the roof of the spaceship.