Apple Park - a boondoggle or the greatest office ever built?

In 2011, Steve Jobs made his final public appearance, presenting his plans for a second Apple campus to Cupertino City Council. He proposed a circular building, one mile in diameter, surrounded by beautifully landscaped grounds that concealed a subterranean parking garage. 

With a whopping $5 billion budget and a prestigious international architect attached to the project, Jobs’ ambition was to build “the best office building in the world.” Drawing on his learnings from Pixar’s headquarters, Jobs believed the “donut-shaped” design would result in to unexpected encounters that prompted innovation.

Completed in 2017, Apple Park quickly an iconic part of the brand, featured in every product launch video. But the building’s Pentagon-style “groundscraper” design epitomizes car-dependent suburban bureaucracy rather than innovation, and with the rise of post-COVID home working, large campus sites have become less relevant. So, in this episode, we explore the history of Silicon Valley office parks and consider if Jobs achieved his goal of building the world’s best office.

MERCH STORE

Check out our merch store on Teepublic for retro-geek t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers, and more:
 https://www.teepublic.com/stores/apple-core-podcast

LINKS:

Video of Steve Jobs’ presentation to Cupertino City Council
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M

The Glendenning Barn
 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/story-behind-random-century-old-162804565.html

History of the Apple Park site
 https://s3.amazonaws.com/Apple-Campus2-DEIR/Apple_Campus_2_Project_EIR_Public_Review_5e-Cultural.pdf

Hewlett Packard’s Garage on Apple Maps
 https://maps.apple.com/?address=367%20Addison%20Ave,%20Palo%20Alto,%20CA%20%2094301,%20United%20States&ll=37.443018,-122.154640&q=367%20Addison%20Ave

Steve Jobs’s parents’ garage on Apple Maps
 https://maps.apple.com/?address=2066%20Crist%20Dr,%20Los%20Altos,%20CA%20%2094024,%20United%20States&ll=37.340323,-122.068897&q=2066%20Crist%20Dr&t=h

The A1844 Door Assembly With Reader
 https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-mystery-device-a1844-photos-user-manual-2017-3

Satellite image of Apple Park by Apple Maps.