Dive Brief:
- Apple Park, the tech giant's 2.8 million-square-foot "spaceship" campus complex in Cupertino, CA, will open in April, according to an Apple press release.
- Building construction and landscaping will continue on the 175-acre office complex while 12,000 employees begin the estimated six-month move-in process.
- The campus was originally scheduled to open in 2015, but the permitting process, as well as Apple's hyper-attention to detail, delayed completion for two years, according to Reuters.
Dive Insight:
The company's only response to delays has been to say that it approached the construction and design of the campus just as it would have for the iPhone — with painstaking consideration of every detail.
The ringed structure boasts the largest pieces of curved glass in the world and features a $160 million auditorium, a $70 million wellness center and a 60,000-square-foot cafeteria. The campus will be surrounded by 7,000 trees, and the 30-acre core will provide employees with a park-like setting with walking trails and a pond. The campus will use solar energy and biofuels to power its operations and will also take advantage of a natural ventilation system that will eliminate the need for traditional mechanical cooling and heating systems for 75% of the year.
In addition to design delays, another hurdle the company faced during construction was a change in construction management. The joint venture of Skanska USA and DPR Construction was replaced with Atlanta's Holder Construction, but Apple has never discussed publicly what led to the mid-project switch.
