After Steve Jobs gave his keynote speech at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, he left the romance of San Francisco behind him and went to a slightly smaller scale meeting – one of the Cupertino Council. At the meeting he presented Apple’s plans for their new headquaters – and to say they’re grandiose would be something of an understatement.
Apple, who have recently purchased 150 acres of land just down the road from their current One Infinite Loop HQ, wants to build a single building to house all of their 12,000 local personnel. The new building, a huge ring featuring – naturally – plate glass outer walls will sit atop a mammoth underground car park in order to increase the grassed areas on the campus to around 80%, with some 6,000 trees.
The building will be roughly half the size of the Pentagon and, as Jobs himself said, look like “a spaceship has landed.”
Jobs was certainly well received at the Council meeting, being Cupertino’s biggest taxpayer, and was quick to note his roots in the area, having attended Cupertino Middle School. Jobs made it clear Apple were keen to stay in the area, even ominously suggesting that if the construction was not given the go-ahead they may have to move to Mountain View – home of arch-nemesis Google. One councillor asked if Apple could provide municipal Wifi for the Cupertino area, a request that Jobs deftly dodged.
If the plans get the green light (which seems more than likely), Apple plan to break ground on the project next year, and be moved in by 2015.
