Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Apple 'spaceship' awaits landing clearance in Cupertino

Apple boss Steve Jobs has pitched Cupertino's City Council with plans to build a new company campus on the land it recently bought from Hewlett-Packard.
The company has outgrown its current home at 1 Infinite Loop in California.
"We've come up with a design that puts 12,000 people in one building," Jobs told councillors.
"It's a little bit like spaceship landed, but there it is. It's got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle, but a lot more... It's a circle and so it's curved all the way around... Not the cheapest way to build something," said Jobs, who presented plans to the council.
Apple is hoping to move into its new headquarters in 2015, if its planning submission is successful.
As part of his pitch, Jobs said the campus would house most of the car parking underground to allow for more green space.
"I think the overall feeling of the place is going to be a zillion times better than it is now with all the asphalt," he said.
When asked what benefits the local community could expect from Apple's planned new home, Jobs reminded the council about the importance of his company's money to the region.
"Well as you know, we're the largest taxpayer in Cupertino so we'd like to continue to stay here and pay taxes. That's number one," he said.
"Because if we can't, then we have to go somewhere like Mountain View and we take our current people with us... and that wouldn't be good for Cupertino and it wouldn't be good for us either."
He added that the health and safety of his iPad and iPhone-developing workers remained paramount.
"We spend a ton of time identifying and hiring what we think are the best people in the world for doing what we do. The last thing we want is for anyone to get hurt," said Jobs. ®
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/08/apple_spaceship/