Apple’s New Spaceship-Like Campus

The new Apple Space Campus is expected to cover 2.8 million square feet and have its own power plant inside its massive, gleaming circular design.

It will be covered in solar panels and house up to 13,000 people on a daily basis — not to mention 6,000 trees.

It’s been compared to a spaceship. And now, as Apple looks to make its innovative new headquarters a reality, it’s checking with the neighbors.

Due to be completed in 2015, Apple’s new headquarters may be one of co-founder Steve Jobs’ final, longest-lasting legacies.

This week, Apple reached out to residents of Cupertino, California, where its current headquarters resides (and will continue to after the new campus is built). In a letter, the company seeks to allay some concerns that its neighbors have expressed since the plan was submitted to the city last summer.
According to the letter, the four-story building will be a research facility that will not replace the existing campus on 1 Infinite Loop. And it will not be open to the public, so there will be no museum or corporate store.

The building will contain an auditorium that seats 1,000 and will be used for special events like product unveilings, though.

The letter, from Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, says the company plans to break ground on the site as soon as Cupertino gives its approval, which is expected this year.

Neighbors are invited to send Apple a letter or go to the city’s website to express any concerns.

In the suburban city of roughly 58,000 people, the primary concerns have focused on additional traffic and environmental impact, both of which Apple says it is addressing in the design of the campus, which is expected to get LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification as an environmentally friendly project.