it might look like a ufo but this giant futuristic building is actually an entire campus dedicated to apple known as apple park the spaceship or the ring this 5 billion dollar building was finally completed in 2017 and has room for 15 000 employees made to blur the line between inside and outside the building is cooled with completely natural airflow has huge four-story tall glass doors that weigh 440 000 pounds each and its own rooftop solar farms there are also hidden secrets underground that only the mind of steve jobs could have come up with so let's take a tour and see why apple's mothership is the company's greatest innovation yet when steve jobs came up with the idea for apple park in 2011 he wanted to make history and we would like to put a new campus on that apple park was envisioned as a hub for innovation with a unique open concept plenty of communal working places and trees straight from natural parks jobs wanted to create a collaborative space where apple's many workers could venture off for a walk in the park to clear their head and then slip back into the office to get back to brainstorming apple's next big invention jobs pitched the idea to the cupertino city council in california in 2011. at the time apple's employees were spread across 100 different buildings he wanted all of his best and brightest to work in one complex which he referred to as a campus the goal of this innovative park was to combine nature sustainability and technological advancement to create the future of office work to start with apple bought an industrial park in cupertino about an hour away from san francisco though it was largely covered by asphalt it sat amongst man-made rolling hills to get the ball rolling on development steve jobs met with architect norman foster a pritzker prize winner whose commissions have included the berlin rickstag the hong kong airport and london's infamous gherkin tower his architecture firm foster and partners decided to take on the unique project and they came up with a budget of about 500 million dollars unfortunately that budget didn't work for very long by the end of 2011 development costs were estimated at about 3 billion and then by completion in 2017 the new apple hq racked up an astonishing 5 billion dollar price tag it's a good thing apple had the money to pay since the company is worth at least 2 trillion dollars today and once you have a good look at all the innovative and unique craftsmanship done on this one-of-a-kind building it's not hard to see why it's worth billions steve jobs passed away in 2011 so while most of the ideas at apple park are his the team was working without his instruction for the majority of the time it took them to build the office apple's headquarters covers about 2. 8 million square feet and its most prominent building is a gigantic ring that surrounds the entire campus which contains about 1.
2 million square feet of office space to get to the campus you have to drive through a 755 foot 230 meter underground tunnel with white tiled walls which then brings you to a huge underground parking lot with room for 3 000 cars there's parking for another 6 000 cars above ground the ring is four stories high and has 12 000 members of staff though it's estimated that about 15 000 people could work at the park and comfort the park even comes with 1 000 bicycles for employees to use to move around the spacious campus other aspects encouraging employee health are the state-of-the-art wellness center and basketball courts this health and wellness complex includes a two-story yoga studio physical therapy studio and laundry facilities it even offers employees access to medical and dental services right on site this wellness center alone cost almost 17 million dollars to construct but it was a vital addition to ensure the health and happiness of apple's hard-working employees plus it was steve jobs belief that a good engineer is one that gets their body moving to inspire the brainstorming that's needed to come up with truly innovative ideas with all of these sports facilities he's definitely encouraging his employees to get out of their office chairs and live a little lunch time is another priority at apple hq as it should be at any good campus the park has seven cafes with the largest spread across three levels this large cafe has balconies for people to eat on as well as large glass doors that can be opened completely on nice days for that inside outside living kind of vibe the sliding glass doors along the exterior of the cafe extend the full four stories of the building to the roof weighing four hundred and forty thousand pounds one hundred ninety nine thousand five hundred eighty point six kilograms each they open and close quietly via mechanisms hidden underground another impressive feature of this main cafe is its capacity to feed 15 000 people every single lunch time and they take their food seriously at apple for workers who want to take the cafe's prized pizza back to their pods apple created and patented their very own pizza box that lets air and moisture escape so the crust won't get soggy now that's the kind of office perk we can get behind steve jobs wanted a lot of glass and natural light included in the park he got exactly what he dreamed because the building features the largest curved glass panes in the world they're 45 feet 13. 7 meters tall and there are 800 on campus another area where the glass is well shown off is in the apple auditorium or steve jobs theater the building is topped with the world's largest carbon fiber roof and there's also a 42 foot 12. 8 meter high glass elevator that's estimated to be the tallest freestanding glass elevator in the entire world the lobby alone cost about 12 million dollars to make but it was jobs wish that the theater stand out like a jewel with the auditorium located privately underground he definitely got his wish because he can't miss it all in all the theater cost about 180 million dollars to construct the only disappointing thing about apple park is that we're not allowed to visit the ring itself is reserved for apple employees and important persons but for people who are curious about how it feels to be in the park apple constructed a visitor center right outside the hq where guests can visit without a pass it has an apple showroom an augmented reality area where people can tour the park with the use of apple products and another cafe the visitor center costs about 110 million dollars but since it's brought tons of interested apple fans of the campus and offers many products for sale it seems like it was another smart investment for the company when steve jobs came up with the idea for apple park he didn't just want nature to be a small part of the project but a key component this means he wanted the hq to be sustainable and eco-friendly as well as resistant to natural disasters like earthquakes hurricanes and flooding one way the building is doing its part is by harvesting energy from a rooftop solar farm that provides for about 75 percent of the campuses total energy needs they also have biofuel cells to help power the rest of the campus to make the hq feel like a real national park apple had 9 000 drought resistant trees brought in to plant around campus jobs was passionate about the new campus featuring indigenous flora including fruit trees from the orchards he remembered from growing up in northern california apple's love for trees was also incorporated in the wood used to construct the offices every piece of wood on campus is a custom timber veneer made from recycled wood instead of real wood the ring also has base isolation underground that protects it from earthquakes the base isolation allows the building to move up to 4.
5 feet 1.
