In addition to a press tour of its upcoming data center and solar array installation in the Nevada desert, a nicely done ‘Better’ video narrated by Tim Cook and fresh updates on its Environmental Responsibility microsite, Apple in advance of Earth Day 2014 also posted an overview video of its monstrous Campus 2 project, affectionally dubbed by the press the iSpaceship.
The footage was actually first shown at a city planning commission meeting in October of last year, but Apple has now decided to make it available to the general public in high-definition to tout its “office of the future”…
The video opens with a Steve Jobs voiceover saying “I think we do have a shot at building the best office building in the world,” followed by this reflection by Norman Foster, the chairman of Foster + Partners, the lead design studio behind the project.
For me, the project started in the summer of 2009. Out of the blue, a telephone call, ‘It’s Steve, hi Norman, I need some help’.
I was out there three weeks later.
One of the most memorable things, and perhaps the most vital to the project, was Steve saying ‘don’t think of me as your client, think of me as one of your team’.
He goes on to say that even though the project did not start as a circular building, “it really grew into that,” adding that “the idea of one building with a great park was really borne out of a very intensive process.”
Steve’s inspiration for the project, Norman reveals, was the campus at Stanford “his home territory” and the landscape that he grew up with, which Steve likened to “the fruit bowl of America.”
The renowned architect last month shared some of the principles behind the planning process and Steve Jobs’s hands-on involvement in the project.
Check out the clip below, it runs three minutes and 41 seconds long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBGx57T0IWM
The video is available for streaming straight from Apple’s website, but had not been uploaded to the company’s YouTube channel at post time.
The idea is to “bring California back to Cupertino,” according to Apple’s senior arborist David Muffly. Apple will bee replanting some of the existing trees on the site with small fruit orchards. There will be more than 7,000 trees, of which about 6,000 will be newly planted shade and fruit trees.
“Drought-tolerant plants will be used throughout the landscape to minimize water use,” notes the company.
According to Apple’s freshly updated Environmental Responsibility microsite, iSpaceship will use 100 percent green energy from renewable assets like solar power and bio fuels.
About 80 percent of the site will be green space.
The main 2.8 million square foot, ring-shaped building will use natural ventilation allowing it to go without air conditioning or heating for 75 percent of the year.
The new campus is being built from the ground up to meet the highest environmental standards set by LEED, an internationally recognized green building rating system. When completed, Apple Campus 2 will be an ever‑present reminder of our commitment to sustainability and an example of what every corporate campus can be.
Over a thousand shared bicycles will be available at the facility, which Apple says will use 30 percent less energy than a typical R&D office building. There’ll be over 300 electric vehicle charging stations for employees who drive electric cars.
“”Better. It’s a powerful word, and a powerful ideal,” says Tim Cook in Apple’s new video titled ‘Better,’ part of an environmental PR push ahead of the company’s Earth Day celebrations planned for tomorrow. “It makes us look at the world and want more than anything to change it for the better. To innovate, improve, to reinvent. To make it better.”