AppleInsider Staff
Apple CEO Tim Cook shared a rare glimpse at Apple Park's inner workings on Wednesday with a video showing off the facility's cafeteria doors, two massive, motorized floor-to-ceiling glass panels that slide open for natural building ventilation.
Cook presented the time lapse video in a tweet, saying, "Lunchtime at Apple Park just got a whole lot more exciting."
Lunchtime at Apple Park just got a whole lot more exciting pic.twitter.com/GJFcOsIB4C
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 16, 2018
The twin doors were among the first features to be installed at Apple Park's main "spaceship" building, as the panels serve not only as an entryway into the cafeteria, but protection from the elements. As seen in a drone flyover in January, the glass doors cover a significant portion of the structure's perimeter.
Cook's video is one of the first to show a first-hand look at the impressive architectural feature. Whether the doors were operational prior to this week is unknown, though Apple has touted the mechanism in the past. The company currently offers a sneak peek at the doors in motion as part of a comprehensive ARKit presentation at its Apple Park visitor center.
Apple uses similar structures — and copious amounts of glass — at its retail outlets to eliminate artificial barriers between interior and exterior spaces. The company's San Francisco flagship, for example, achieves a wide-open effect with sliding glass doors similar to those employed at Apple Park. Visitors to Apple's Dubai store, meanwhile, can gain access to a large balcony through carbon fiber "solar wings" that open and close depending on weather conditions.
Apple Park, previously referred to as "Campus 2," was first unveiled by late company co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011. Construction of the massive campus began in 2014 with the demolition of standing structures on the site once owned by Hewlett-Packard.
Apple revealed Apple Park as the official name of its new headquarters early in 2017, saying at the time it expected all 12,000 employees to be moved in by year's end. Workers were still making the migration in February when Apple Park became Apple's official corporate address, though the move-in process has since completed.
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8 Comments
Who let all these flies in??
Glass walls, staircases, doorknobs, cupboards, thresholds, windowed doors and associated hoopla (and then people smashing their faces into it...)
I’m not begrudging and everyone should have his own hobby but if this is their fascination I understand what has happened with the Mac industry...