Apple to open its Norman Foster-designed campus in April

Date
23 February 2017

Apple has announced that its 5 million-square-feet campus in the Santa Clara Valley, California will open to 12,000 employees this April. Called Apple Park, the buildings and surrounding parklands will be the headquarters of the corporation, with the main, ring-shaped building designed by London-based Foster + Partners clad entirely in curved glass .

The company has also announced that the 1000-seat auditorium in the building will be named the Steve Jobs Theatre in memory of the Apple founder who died in 2011.

“Steve’s vision for Apple stretched far beyond his time with us. He intended Apple Park to be the home of innovation for generations to come,” says Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The workspaces and parklands are designed to inspire our team as well as benefit the environment. We’ve achieved one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the world and the campus will run entirely on renewable energy.” 

“Steve invested so much of his energy creating and supporting vital, creative environments. We have approached the design, engineering and making of our new campus with the same enthusiasm and design principles that characterise our products,” says Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “Connecting extraordinarily advanced buildings with rolling parkland creates a wonderfully open environment for people to create, collaborate and work together. We have been extremely fortunate to be able to work closely, over many years, with the remarkable architectural practice Foster + Partners.”

Parts of Apple Park will be open to the public with a visitor centre, Apple Store and a cafe, although most of the parklands will be restricted to employees’ use only.

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Foster and Partners: Apple Park

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Foster and Partners: Apple Park

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Foster and Partners: Steve Jobs Theatre

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Foster and Partners: Apple Park

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About the Author

Owen Pritchard

Owen joined It’s Nice That as Editor in November of 2015 leading and overseeing all editorial content across online, print and the events programme, before leaving in early 2018.

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