Apple's spaceship-styled, energy-conserving home office to lift off in April

Apple has set the opening date for its years-in-the-making, highly anticipated new home office, which is located in the company's hometown of Cupertino, California. The campus even has an official name.




The name of Apple’s new spaceship-looking home office, Apple Park is a 175-acre campus located in California’s Santa Clara Valley. The new building, slated to open in April, will welcome more than 12,000 people over a six-month period. Construction of the campus and parklands is scheduled to continue through the summer, Apple said.



Envisioned by Steve Jobs as a center for creativity and collaboration, Apple Park is a ring-shaped, 2.8 million-sq.-ft. main building clad entirely in panels of curved glass. Working closely with the architectural practice Foster + Partners, Apple has created “workspaces and parklands designed to inspire our team, as well as benefit the environment,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve achieved one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the world and the campus will run entirely on renewable energy.”



The environment friendly campus replaces 5 million-sq.-ft. of asphalt and concrete with grassy fields and over 9,000 native and drought-resistant trees. With 17 megawatts of rooftop solar, Apple Park will run one of the largest on-site solar energy installations in the world. It is also the site of the world’s largest naturally ventilated building, projected to require no heating or air conditioning for nine months of the year, the company reported.



To honor the memory of Apple’s founder and his influence, the building’s theater will be named the Steve Jobs Theater. The campus also includes a visitors center with an Apple Store and cafe open to the public, a 100,000-sq.-ft. fitness center for Apple employees, secure research and development facilities. Within the ring’s interior grounds, the campus also features two miles of walking and running paths for employees, an orchard, meadow and pond.



“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,” said Cook.