Always one for the understated gesture, Steve Jobs has recently given a speech to the Cupertino City Council to get approval for a new UFO, sorry Apple campus in Cupertino, US.
The design is summed up by Jobs quote - "It looks like "a spaceship just landed there," Jobs said.
The project is extremey ambitious - 12000 people housed in a 4 storey glass UFO with not a single piece of straight glass in the facade.
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It was very interesting to see Jobs in "pitch mode" outside of the more familiar keynote speeches he is renowned for. Suddenly Jobs is more controlled and more low-key. Like all of us involved with Planning departments, Jobs knows he does not have the control anymore. His project can easily be thrown out if he pushes too hard. It is still very obviously a sales pitch but without the flowery use of words like "magical" or "insanely great."
In the pitch Jobs really shows other facets to his character.. When a council member asks if Apple plans to give the city free wi-fi, he says: "We're the largest taxpayers in Cupertino, so we'd like to continue to stay here and pay taxes," A beautiful retort to those who for a small moment held an apple in the palm of their hands.
Key highlights of the project include
- The campus would use its own natural gas generator as its primary source of power and the city's power grid only as a backup.
- The building includes an auditorium for conferences, and Jobs suggests that's where Apple could hold its big events instead of renting out space in San Francisco. Certainly the cheapest way to reduce hiring a hall for a night ; )
- Apple wants to break ground next year, and move in in 2015
If ever a project needed to be saved from value engineering, it is this one. A 4 storey glass box really wont be that special.
Sorry for the terrible low res images, but these are all thats out there at present.
Thanks to businessinsider.com for the heads up...
