Apple Campus

History and founding

Apple's corporate headquarters was originally located at Building 1 on 20525 Mariani Ave in Cupertino. The land east of Mariani One across De Anza Boulevard where the campus was built was originally occupied by the company Four-Phase Systems (later acquired by Motorola). It has an area of 850,000 square feet (79,000 m²). Construction began in 1992 and was completed in 1993 by the Sobrato Development Company. Before 1997, activities held on the campus were exclusively research and development. Until that time the buildings were referred to as R&D 1-6. With return of Steve Jobs to Apple in 1997, changes were made to the campus: Apple increased the number of occupied buildings, and many activities not related to R&D were moved to the buildings on Infinite Loop, at which point they began to be referenced by their IL # designations. Steve Jobs left additional marks on the campus, for example, banning employees' pets and dramatically improving the cafeteria menu.

On the night of August 12, 2008, a fire broke out on the second floor of the building Valley Green 6. The firefighters worked for hours until the following morning to extinguish the fire. No injuries were reported, but the forty-year-old building suffered $2 million of fire damage.

Original campus

The Apple Campus is located on the southeast corner of Interstate 280 and De Anza Boulevard, and occupies 32 acres (130,000 m²) in six buildings spread over four floors. Each building is numbered with one digit on the private U-shaped street Infinite Loop, so named because of the programming concept of an infinite loop. The street, in conjunction with Mariani Avenue, actually does form a circuit (or cycle) that can circulate indefinitely. The main building has the address 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California. Employees refer to these buildings as IL1 to IL6 for Infinite Loop 1-6. Besides the buildings on Infinite Loop, the whole Apple Campus occupies an additional thirty buildings scattered throughout the city to accommodate its employees. Some of these buildings are leased (with an average rental cost of $2.5 per square foot), while others are of recent acquisition; the land that the new buildings occupy will be used for future construction of a second campus in the city with the aim of centralizing the activities of the company. In total, including nine newly acquired buildings on Pruneridge Avenue, the company controls more than 3,300,000 square feet (310,000 m²) for its activities in the city of Cupertino. This represents almost 40% of the 8,800,000 square feet (820,000 m²) of office space and facilities for research and development available in the city. At 1 Infinite Loop is an Apple Store selling Apple equipment and souvenirs. It is the only part of the campus open to the public.

Apple Park

In April 2006, Steve Jobs announced to the city council of Cupertino that Apple had acquired nine contiguous properties to build a second campus, the Apple Campus 2. It will be located one mile east of the existing facility. Originally expected to break ground in 2013 and open in 2015, the project experienced delays and started in 2014, it is expected to be open in April 2017. The proposed second campus is also next to a contaminated site under Superfund legislation with a groundwater plume.

Apple has had a presence in Cupertino since 1977, which is why the company decided to build in the area rather than move to a cheaper, distant location. Purchases of the needed properties were made through the company Hines Interests, which in at least some cases did not disclose the fact that Apple was the ultimate buyer; Philip Mahoney, a partner with a local commercial real estate brokerage, noted that this is common practice in attempts to arrange the purchase of contiguous land made up of multiple parcels with separate owners, in order to keep costs from skyrocketing and not reveal the company's plans to competitors. Among the sellers of the properties were SummerHill Homes (a plot of 8 acres (32,000 m²)) and Hewlett-Packard (three buildings of their campus in Cupertino), among others.

The land cost was estimated at $160 million. The new campus design will take 3 to 4 years, and the project cost is estimated at $500 million. However, in 2013 the total cost was estimated to be nearer to $5 billion. Until April 2008, Apple had not sought the necessary permits to begin construction, so it was estimated that the project would not be ready in 2010 as originally proposed; however, the buildings on the site are being currently held by Apple for its operations. In November 2010 the San Jose Mercury News revealed that Apple had bought an additional 98 acres (400,000 m²) no longer used by HP Inc., just north across Pruneridge Ave. This space used to be the HP campus in Cupertino before it was relocated to Palo Alto. The estimated amount paid for the land is $300 million. Additionally, El Economista revealed that worldwide acclaimed architect Lord Norman Foster is in charge of the design of the new campus.

On June 7, 2011, Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs presented to Cupertino City Council details of the architectural design of the new buildings and their environs. The new campus, on a site now totalling 176 acres (0.71 km²), is planned to house up to 13,000 employees in one central four-storied circular building of approximately 2,800,000 square feet (260,000 m²), which will include a café for 3,000 sitting people, be surrounded by extensive landscaping, and offer parking both underground and in a parking structure. Media reports widely described the new structure as "spaceship". Other facilities include a 1,000 seat auditorium, 300,000 square feet (28,000 m²) of R&D facilities, a fitness center, an orchard, and a dedicated generating plant as the primary source of electricity (powered by natural gas and other more environmentally sound means). Jobs: "It's got a gorgeous courtyard in the middle, and a lot more. It's a circle, so it's curved all the way round. This is not the cheapest way to build something." Every pane of glass in the main building will be curved. This proved to be Jobs' last public appearance before his death in October 2011.

The existing ratio of built-up area to landscaping on the site is 80:20. After Apple's redevelopment, this ratio will be reversed so that 80% of the redeveloped site will be greenery.

On October 15, 2013, Cupertino City Council unanimously approved Apple's plans for the new campus after a six-hour debate. Shortly thereafter, demolition work began to prepare the site for the new construction.