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[Guevara]

The hole in the middle is for storing excess cash.

At what turned out to be his last public appearance, Steve Jobs stood before the Cupertino City Council on June 7, 2011, to present plans for a new corporate campus for Apple (AAPL). Scarecrow thin but forceful as ever, Jobs displayed several renderings of a headquarters intended to accommodate more than 12,000 employees in a single, circular building. “It’s a little like a spaceship,” he said of the massive, four-story ring, which, at 2.8 million square feet, would be two-thirds the size of the Pentagon and set among 176 acres of trees where today there are mostly asphalt parking lots. “We have a shot,” he said, “at building the best office building in the world. I really do think that architecture students will come here to see it.”

Jobs died four months later, before the final plans could be submitted to Cupertino city planners, but he had made it clear that this corporate Shangri-La would be expensive. Apple would add 6,000 trees and hide nearly all the roads and parking spaces underground. There would be plenty of cafeterias, including one that could handle lunch for 3,000 employees. Jobs highlighted the main building’s curved exterior walls. The plans call for unprecedented 40-foot, floor-to-ceiling panes of concave glass from Germany. Before the Cupertino council, Jobs noted, “there isn’t a straight piece of glass on the whole building … and as you know if you build things, this isn’t the cheapest way to build them.”

He had that right. Since 2011, the budget for Apple’s Campus 2 has ballooned from less than $3 billion to nearly $5 billion, according to five people close to the project who were not authorized to speak on the record. If their consensus estimate is accurate, Apple’s expansion would eclipse the $3.9 billion being spent on the new World Trade Center complex in New York, and the new office space would run more than $1,500 per square foot—three times the cost of many top-of-the-line downtown corporate towers.

Cost overruns are to be expected on large construction projects, and the scale of this one has evolved—from an initial plan to accommodate 6,000 employees, to offices for 12,000 or even 13,000 in one place. Meanwhile, $1 billion is still less than 1 percent of Apple’s $137 billion in cash reserves. Yet the multibillion-dollar budget for Campus 2 could add fuel to the debate about what Apple’s doing with all its money. Investors didn’t squawk much when Apple was dominating the smartphone and tablet market, but shares have fallen 38 percent since September amid rising competition from Samsung Electronics and concerns about Apple’s product pipeline. Now shareholders are calling for a big dividend, stock buyback, or, in the case of Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn, the issuance of a new class of preferred shares. Apple has hinted it might oblige in some way, but critics are sure to question whether curved glass is the best use of funds. “It would take some convincing for me to understand why $5 billion is the right number for a project like this,” says Keith Goddard, the chief executive of Tulsa-based Capital Advisors, which owns 30,537 shares of Apple. “This is rubbing salt in the wound, to spend at a level that most anyone would say is extravagant, at a time when they’re being so stingy on dividends.” If the stock continues to underperform, Goddard predicts, “this headquarters would perpetuate the negative story.”

A lot more at the link, the whole article is pretty interesting.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-04/apples-campus-2-shapes-up-as-an-investor-relations-nightmare#r=tec-s

 

[3N16MA]

Need to do something with that $137 billion cash reserve.

 

[dankir]

It looks like a spaceship because it one! All Apple employees will get sent away to the Apple planet where Steve currently lives.

 

[jett]

Pocket change for them.

 

[sans_pants]

enjoyable


apple is lame as hell now. they new commercials are absolutely horrible

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Warp drives don't come cheap.

 

[JABEE]

Reminds me of Citizen Kane.

 

[Szu]

It looks like a spaceship because it one! All Apple employees will get sent away to the Apple planet where Steve currently lives.

Apple planet??

 

[FStop7]

I'm still trying to figure out how that's an efficient design. If you have to go to the other side of the building you either have to walk through the forest or walk half the entire circle.

Just seems like a lot of time and resources will be wasted moving around in a building like that. Transporting mail, deliveries, etc.

 

[SimleuqiR]

Warp drives don't come cheap.

 

[LCfiner]

I just finished Neal Gabler's Disney biography and I can't help but fear that this will be somewhat parallel to Disney's Burbank studio opening after completing Snow White. A ton of money spent on a "paradise" for workers but the then the new digs create more divisions and silos between groups.

 

[badcrumble]

Lol at salty stockholders whining for dividends. Nothing wrong with a company having long-term plans.

 

[dorkimoe]

Well if they are filling it with apple products of course its going to be worth that much

 

[mrklaw]

Need to do something with that $137 billion cash reserve.

dividends?

 

[Fuzz Rez]

I don't like the design at all. They should have contacted person who did Nintendo's Osaka HQ. It would have been lot more classier and wouldn't cost arm and leg.

 

[Windu]

I'm still trying to figure out how that's an efficient design. If you have to go to the other side of the building you either have to walk through the forest or walk half the entire circle.

Teleporters

 

[Divvy]

I just finished Neal Gabler's Disney biography and I can't help but fear that this will be somewhat parallel to Disney's Burbank studio opening afetr completing Snow White. A ton of money spent on a "paradise" for workers but the then the new digs create more divisions and silos between groups.

Wasn't Steve known for pitting teams against each other? That's probably what he wanted.

 

[maniac-kun]

Who cares how some company wastes their money.

 

[Majine]

I'd love to work in that environment. That is all.

 

[Tom_Cody]

It looks like a spaceship because it one! All Apple employees will get sent away to the Apple planet where Steve currently lives.

The total cost of the Mars Science Laboratory was only $2.5 Billion after all. That $2.5 Billion includes the rover, the rocket, operations, etc.

 

[Tathanen]

If you have to go to the other side of the building you either have to walk through the forest or walk half the entire circle.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I don't like the design at all. They should have contacted person who did Nintendo's Osaka HQ. It would have been lot more classier and wouldn't cost arm and leg.

Apple has plenty of arms and legs.

 

[Shadow of the BEAST]

That is one ugly building.

Its like they never learned shit from the horrible utopian architecture from last century.

 

[Oppo]

when god reaches down and runs his finger along the top, he will be able to quickly and easily select earth's playlist.

 

[Tom_Cody]

Who cares how some company wastes their money.

To be specific, stockholders should and do care.

 

[Nevasleep]

Fuck the shareholders, build the spaceship Apple.
Also 13,000 employees working, whoop.

 

[jett]

I'm still trying to figure out how that's an efficient design. If you have to go to the other side of the building you either have to walk through the forest or walk half the entire circle.

Just seems like a lot of time and resources will be wasted moving around in a building like that. Transporting mail, deliveries, etc.

The real reason it went overbudget is because Apple bought a bunch of segways. All of them.

 

[ponpo]

Are there any photos of this yet? I've only ever seen that one render.

 

[dc89]

It will be incredible once complete.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Are there any photos of this yet? I've only ever seen that one render.

Nope. The cloaking device was the first thing that went operational.

 

[massoluk]

Lol at salty stockholders whining for dividends. Nothing wrong with a company having long-term plans.

Uh... I think the stockholders are right to ask for some more dividends from a company with freaking $137 billion in cash.

 

[SolsticeZero]

Glad I'm not the only one who thought this!

 

[Leucrota]

Couldn't they build an actual spaceship with the extra 2 bn dollars?

 

[SummitAve]

You could fit some much corporate culture within that fence.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

HAHAHAHAHA

 

[xbhaskarx]

Half the buildings around my company's office have Apple logos, will all these people eventually be moving into that big circle? Because that would open up a hell of a lot of office space.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

The that is so great about living in a Apple iDonut is that it's so simple. No matter which direction you go in, you will never be lost because you're running in circles. We call it iDiot-bullcrap-space-saucer-time-waste-place.

 

[Zeppu]

"...there isn’t a straight piece of glass on the whole building..."

It's great to hear that finally Apple employees will be ditching their iPhones and getting Nexus phones.

 

[Dead Man]

Lol at salty stockholders whining for dividends. Nothing wrong with a company having long-term plans.

This sentence doesn't make a great deal of sense. The stockholders OWN THE COMPANY.

 

[Something Wicked]

Did Apple hire a Boston's Big Dig union or something?

 

[Parallacs]

iHubris

 

[Hari Seldon]

Oh no they might have to start paying taxes on that cash stashed away in their tax havens.

 

[funkystudent]

Makes sense that the Apple HQ would also cost 2 times as much as it should. Its the apple way.

 

[numble]

I'm still trying to figure out how that's an efficient design. If you have to go to the other side of the building you either have to walk through the forest or walk half the entire circle.

Just seems like a lot of time and resources will be wasted moving around in a building like that. Transporting mail, deliveries, etc.

It's better than the current system of offices scattered throughout Cupertino. But there's also an underground network (the same way they're expecting employees to enter the building with).

 

[Aldebaran]

I'm still trying to figure out how that's an efficient design. If you have to go to the other side of the building you either have to walk through the forest or walk half the entire circle.

Just seems like a lot of time and resources will be wasted moving around in a building like that. Transporting mail, deliveries, etc.

It wouldn't be the first time Apple sacrifices usability for design.

 

[Dead Man]

I'm still trying to figure out how that's an efficient design. If you have to go to the other side of the building you either have to walk through the forest or walk half the entire circle.

Just seems like a lot of time and resources will be wasted moving around in a building like that. Transporting mail, deliveries, etc.

Works for the Pentagon... wait.

 

[x-Lundz-x]

Better get iPhone 5s out the door stat.

 

[Salvor.Hardin]

It's better than the current system of offices scattered throughout Cupertino. But there's also an underground network (the same way they're expecting employees to enter the building with).

An underground set up for programmers and creative designers can't possibly be a good idea. The former can be such a reclusive profession that some sun and grass can be quite useful for the spirit, while the latter shouldn't be holed up underground because of the nature of the job.

Hell, no one should have to work underground unless there's a security requirement.

 

[numble]

An underground set up for programmers and creative designers can't possibly be a good idea. The former can be such a reclusive profession that some sun and grass can be quite useful for the spirit, while the latter shouldn't be holed up underground because of the nature of the job.

Hell, no one should have to work underground unless there's a security requirement.

No, I meant an underground setup for getting around. They expect people to park underground and get to their offices from those parking areas, so they'd presumably use that same setup for getting to the farthest points of the circle, when they don't have the time or its bad weather to go through the center.

 

[FStop7]

How deep underground can you go in earthquake land?

I've been to the Apple campus once and I see where the spaceship is an improvement over the disjointed system of a bunch of small to medium size office buildings spread out all over the place. I work for a company with a similar campus and it can be a pain. The consolidation aspect does make sense to me.