- [Narrator] This footage shows the last public appearance
of Steve Jobs.
Four months before his death, he speaks
to the Cupertino City Council
to reveal one final project.
- Apple's grown like a weed
and as you know, we've always been
in Cupertino, started in a little office park
and eventually got the buildings we are in now
at the corner of De Anza and 280.
- [Narrator] The previous so-called Apple Campus
was no longer big enough
for the growing company.
The buildings constructed in 1993 are arranged
along a circular private road, Infinite Loop,
named after a programming term
for a code that will run endlessly by itself.
In order to cope with the growing number
of employees, the company started acquiring more
and more buildings in the area.
Eventually, Apple was operating out of a chaotic mix
of buildings that were originally
developed entirely separately from one another
and are by no means ideal
for a coherent office headquarters.
- So, we're renting buildings,
not very good buildings either
(audience laughs)
at an ever greater radius from our campus.
And it's clear that we need to build a new campus.
- [Narrator] The plan was not to abandon the existing campus
at Infinite Loop
but to expand it with a larger, modern one.
Apple was able to acquire a large piece
of land that is not only located nearby
but also sits directly on Interstate 280,
which runs through the entire Silicon Valley
offering good accessibility for employees.
A large part of this area was
for sale because the computer company
Hewlett and Packard closed their offices here.
And Steve Jobs personally came full circle
by acquiring this site as it was somewhat personal to him.
- I, when I was 13, I think I called up
Hewlett and Packard were my idols
and I called up Bill Hewlett
'cause he lived in Palo Alto
and he picked up the phone
and I talked to him and I asked him
if he'd gimme some spare parts
for something I was building called a frequency counter.
And he did.
But in addition to that,
he gave me something way more important.
He gave me a job that summer, a summer job,
at Hewlett-Packard right here on
in Santa Clara off 280,
the division that built frequency counters
and I was in heaven.
Well, right around that exact moment in time
Hewlett and Packard themselves were walking
on some property over here in Cupertino in Pruneridge
and they ended up buying it
and they built their computer systems division there.
And as Hewlett Packard has been shrinking lately,
they decided to sell that property and we bought it.
(calm instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Apple hired the design studio
Foster and Partners by British architect Norman Foster,
one of the most influential contemporary architects
in the world.
Foster's career initially took off
in the 1970s when he made his name
by creating machine influence buildings
that borrowed industrial design elements
for a modernist look.
Over the decades, his style has evolved
and his newer buildings feature less harsh elements
but an evolving modern aesthetic.
His buildings display a functional modernity, a good fit
as his design approach is akin
to Apple's own product philosophy.
In designing the new Apple campus,
Foster worked closely with Steve Jobs,
who had a very personal vision for the project,
and Jony Ive, then Apple's Chief Design Officer,
who having worked at Apple since the late '90s
was about as renowned in the field of product design
as Foster was in the field of architecture.
It was the beginning of a special partnership
of exceptional talents.
- We've seen these office parks with lots
of buildings and they get pretty boring pretty fast,
so we'd like to do something better than that.
And the campus we'd like to build there
is one building that holds 12,000 people.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- [Narrator] The final complex is called Apple Park
and it is characterized by its centerpiece,
a single ring shaped building surrounded by vast parkland.
And while the campus itself is the result
of a unique collaboration, the building is designed
to enable exactly these types of collaborations.
The parks should invite employees who may work
in completely different parts
of the building to cross paths and exchange ideas.
The circular building is divided into nine sections,
each connected by a light-filled atrium.
And although the building
as a whole offers an enormous amount of space
due to the ring shape, it is not overwhelmingly large
at any individual point.
Within the individual segments,
walkways lead around the building
along the outer and inner rims.
These walkways are separated from the outside only
by a continuous wall made
of glass that stretches from the floor to the ceiling,
allowing a panoramic view of the surroundings.
Apple claims that these are the largest curved glass panels
used in any building to date and sticking out
from the facade are white canopies positioned to cast shade
at the interior hallways.
In addition, these elements are also part
of the building's active ventilation system,
bringing fresh air in from the outside.
The office space is also kept very open
with glass walls laying out an open pot design.
In this concept, the employees are given access
to a large open floor plan where they can self locate
to available desks.
This layout should increase collaboration
and is inspired by co-working spaces and college campuses.
But this vision of a modern working environment clashes
with reality in many places.
There are reports that some
of Apple's employees dislike the open pot concept
with programmers struggling to concentrate
in this new setup.
Another place where employees come together
is the central cafeteria.
It is a single lunchroom
for the entire building.
Delight filled space that rises from the floor
to the roof offering a massive open room is intended
as yet another meeting space.
And along the outer wall,
there are two giant glass doors that can be open
to allow the interior of the building to flow seamlessly
into the exterior landscape.
When it came to the design of the parks,
it was important to Steve Jobs
that the landscape is a reflection
of the California landscape he grew up around.
The new campus is not only close to the previous campus
but also not far from where everything started for Jobs.
His childhood home
where he assembled the first Apple computers
together with Steve Wozniak in 1976.
More than 30 years later, in addition
to the immense global influence the company has exerted,
Apple has also become a fundamental part
of the local environment in which Steve Jobs grew up,
not only as one of the largest tenants
in the area and as a large employer
but also as the city's biggest taxpayer.
The company that once started
in a garage here had transformed the entire neighborhood.
The parks at the new campus
therefore had to celebrate the local environment
and Steve Jobs wanted them to be based
on nearby Stanford University.
Jobs appreciated the park layout here designed
by Frederick Law Olmsted, who is considered the founder
of American landscape architecture.
Steve Jobs also appreciated the extensive hiking trails
that surrounded the Stanford dish right
behind the university.
For the design of the parks,
reclaimed landscape architect Laurie Olin
was hired who relocated to Palo Alto for four months
in order to get a real feel for the local environment.
His park design is a representation
of the California landscape.
On one hand, there is a wide meadow extending
from the building, which can be used for events
and resembles campus parkland at Stanford University.
There are also two freestanding cafes here.
Adjacent behind are several rows of an orchard containing
over 800 fruit trees referencing the bay area's
countless food plantations.
And then there is this manmade pond
again referencing the waters of the surrounding area,
which enable all the greenery to exist.
California's two largest rivers flow all
across the state until they ultimately meet right here
in the Bay area before flowing into the ocean.
It is a fascinating piece
of landscape architecture that symbolically
reflects this unique region of the country.
And all of this is surrounded by different types
of oak trees that structure the landscape both
inside and outside of the building,
creating a natural feeling parkland
that connects the different parts
of the building with pathways.
For the planting of the trees,
Apple hired the arborist, Dave Muffly
who had previously planted the Stanford dish
that jobs wanted to replicate.
- [Steve] Today about 20% of the space is landscaping.
Most of it is a big asphalt parking lot.
We want to completely change this and we want to make 80%
of it landscape.
And the way we're gonna do this
is we're gonna put the most of the parking underground
- [Narrator] Accessible through these tunnels
is the underground parking garage,
which was custom designed
with the same level of detail as the main building.
Jony Ive's design team created a custom signage system
with the information displayed
in wide frames attached to the curved walls
and the traffic lights are arranged horizontally
and reference the icons
in the corner of applications in Apple's operating system.
But because the underground space is not quite enough,
Apple also had to build two parking garages
at the southern end of the campus.
Located in the top left corner
is the Apple Park Fitness Center.
On the outside, there are facilities
for team sports like volleyball, basketball, and soccer.
While inside there is is a full fitness studio accessible
to Apple employees only.
(calm instrumental music)
Located on the other side
of the park is a building that regularly is open
for outsiders,
during Apple's press events at the Steve Jobs Theater.
However, only the entrance pavilion is visible above ground
because the actual auditorium itself
is completely underground.
The theater is used for the presentation
of new products by the company and can seat 1,000 people.
The award-winning pavilion above ground stands out
for the fact that there are no support columns.
The roof is made of a light carbon fiber panel
and the entire structural load is carried directly
by the glass.
It's the largest structure
in the world that is solely supported by glass
and the electrical wiring
and sprinkler pipes are completely hidden
along the thin silicon joints
between the curved glass panels.
Inside, there is a glass spiral elevator that rotates
in such a way that only one door is necessary.
It is just one out
of countless details that were specifically created
such as custom designed elevator buttons, door handles
or even specially designed pizza boxes for the cafe
which Apple even patented.
(calm instrumental music)
Apple Park is a space with no compromises
but implementing the idea
of a collaborative space so radically led to issues
for cases where the reality required different setups.
With the needs
of certain teams not matching that overall vision.
Apple had to build separate buildings
for research and development departments.
These are departments where confidentiality is
especially important
and the resulting building
doesn't follow the open transparent idea
of the main building.
The roofs are filled with AC ventilation shafts instead
of solar panels as present on the rest of the campus.
The offices are also arranged in a more traditional way
instead of the open concept
and surface level parking is available
in front of the rectangular office towers.
The magnificent round building is by no means sufficient
for Apple.
And instead of using the large space effectively,
new buildings are built nearby
with less ambitious design approaches.
- [Steve] And, it's pretty amazing building.
It's a little like a spaceship landed. (laughs)
(calm instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Perhaps Steve Jobs comparison
of the building with a spaceship applies
to much more than its visual appearance.
Apple Park is an uncompromising attempt
to create an isolated island that bears little relation
to the life and troubles
of the adjacent streets and communities.
Apple operates its own private bus service
to shuttle employees through the congested Silicon Valley.
The company also operates its own private medical centers
in Cupertino exclusively for employees.
While Apple's attempt to create an isolated environment
for its employees is rife with benefits,
it might be even more forward thinking
if the company had instead created a campus
in an environment where interaction
with local businesses is encouraged,
where environmentally friendly short commutes
would be possible
and where the success
of their campus could rub off on the environment
and integrate into modern city planning solutions.
Perhaps the goal wasn't to create the most practical campus
but rather to create a building that embodies some form
of perfection that is intended to set standards
within the company and display the approach
for how the company should develop its products.
More than anything, Steve Jobs approached this campus
not as an architect or a productivity expert
but as a storyteller aware
of the power a well told story has to inspire.
- [Steve] I think we do have a shot
of building the best office building
in the world, and I really do think architecture students
will come here to see this.
- [Narrator] It shows that architecture
can do many different things
and while this massive building is made to symbolize
and nurture a specific design approach,
in my next video,
I will look at a very, very different piece
of real estate as I will be exploring the Las Vegas Strip.
Similar to this video, I have mapped
out the area in 3D and I will be exploring how
two companies alone have secured control
over a large part of the casino business in Las Vegas.
The video will go live on YouTube in a couple of weeks
but you can already watch it right now on Nebula
where I'll be posting all my videos first.
Now here's what's really exciting about this.
Nebula is not some sponsor that reached out.
It is a streaming service,
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and what started as a small passion project has turned
into a massive success that allows us to create way
more ambitious projects than we could on YouTube.
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- I don't like the red. - Why?
- I would get this in gray. - What?
- I know.
- [Narrator] Special forces rated the compound.
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