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A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

wired.com

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Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#71

Post by stevenwoo »

tzs wrote: post #66
tuna-piano wrote: post #21

Beautiful building. I wonder though - for those who read the article and have worked in both suburban environments and urban ones - would you rather work in the amazing Apple spaceship in the suburbs, or a normal office building in a city-center? For me, I think I'd still prefer a short commute and the density of stuff that comes with being downtown.

I haven't been to Cupertino in many years, but from what I can see on maps and aerial/satellite images it looks like it hasn't changed a lot since I lived there. My recollection is that "suburbs" is not really a good description. Suburbs bring to mind mostly residential neighborhoods with a few big shopping centers here and there, and not much within reasonable walking or biking range. Places where you find yourself…

Your recollection is pretty accurate for today, but it's even denser in all the little towns - almost every single vacant lot is now built up on the main thoroughfares, saw them getting built up over the last fifteen years.

Closer to Apple the two exits on 280 backup all the way down the onramp from about 8 to 10 every weekday morning. Still bikeable but have to be very alert when on the main streets in the bike lanes.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#72

Post by chris_7 »

teniutza wrote: post #61
tuna-piano wrote: post #21

Beautiful building. I wonder though - for those who read the article and have worked in both suburban environments and urban ones - would you rather work in the amazing Apple spaceship in the suburbs, or a normal office building in a city-center? For me, I think I'd still prefer a short commute and the density of stuff that comes with being downtown.

With so many people working there, I'll be like working in a small(-ish) town. I don't know if the article mentioned it or not, but I would expect that a company of that level would provide some perks, like free snacks. To an employee, it would be like a short stroll to grab a bagel, or whatever people in that region like to eat, with the exception of it being free. One could get used to it, I bet...

Apple makes employees pay for the company cafeteria.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#74

Post by plussed_reader »

akgerber wrote: post #62
matsemann wrote: post #36

I'd wish they were a bit more futuristic than having 9000 parking spaces. Why not offer buses from where their employees live or other means of transportation? It's easy to say that most people drive, but that's only because everyone always make that the most convenient mode of transportation. With some effort something else could be even more convenient.

Because the postwar suburban land use of the surrounding area is designed exclusively around automobiles and makes it nearly impossible and extremely unpleasant to walk for transportation, a prerequisite of functional mass transit. Silicon Valley has chosen to preserve its form of single-family suburban sprawl forever, at the cost of any human with a reasonable income being able to move there.

Not forever; the old parts of 'silicon valley' have been being turned under and rebuilt taller. Look north and east of the intersection of 237 & Mathilda Ave.

The south SF bay(and most of the bay, really) is similar to Chicago in the run up to the Civil War; it's expanded out as much as possible, the only direction left is up. The gentrifying is pricing families out of the area; you can measure progress with BART, and how it's snaking it's way into the heart of the south bay.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#75

Post by justinator »

MattRogish wrote: post #63
timc3 wrote: post #19

I am wondering why I find it kind of odd that it doesn't have a childcare center.

I was talking with a friend about this, that works at a big SV company that is known for high comp. Why don't they have a child care facility? Surely they can afford it! His response was - paraphrasing - "What happens if someone quits, or is fired? In SV/SF, waits for child care facilities can easily take 6-12 months. If someone is terminated from our company, the last thing we want for them to do is have a crisis ab…

In the case of firing, are they unable to take care of the child themselves at home?

I understand that on-site childcare wouldn't work for everyone, but it could work for some, and be a benefit to them.

Other companies DO provide it.

There's a on-site cafeteria, correct? Do they worry how people will get lunch if they quit/fired? Reservations in SV/SF can easily take 6-12 months. /s

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#76

Post by dingo_bat »

stephen_g wrote: post #64
ar15saveslives wrote: post #52

Guess how individual workspaces will look like. I bet it will be old good terrible gray 6x6 cubicles. EDIT: To all downvoters: https://assets.wired.com/photos/w_1970/wp-content/uploads/20...

Why guess? There are pictures in the article... In fact, the whole thing was apparently designed around the workspace concept... I have to presume, but it sounds like you didn't read the article before commenting.

I really didn't find any pics of the workspace in the article. If it is not much work, can you link to the pic here?

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#77

Post by ensiferum »

All nice and fancy. Probably great for the upper level management. They can take a stroll in the park between golf games. For the grunt workers it's still just another cubicle hell where you crunch away some crappy code or TPS reports.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#78

Post by zeristor »

metaphorm wrote: post #58
poslathian wrote: post #33

5B for 13k employees - that's ~$384,000 in construction costs per head, operating and maintenance expenses are perhaps 5% of that annually (maybe more!) - taken together this is an office building that's costing apple ~$3500/head/mo . It's a beautiful office, but seriously? Avg apple cash comp is what, 12500/mo? 3500 is almost 30% of that!

from the company's point of view it's not a cash spend on employee benefits (the way bonus pay would be) but rather investment into a capital asset. the building itself retains a large amount of value over time, and under the right circumstances might even appreciate in value.

It might appreciate in value, but you would still need someone willing to pay $5B+ for it.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#79

Post by justinator »

eddieroger wrote: post #35
strictnein wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is rather odd.

Is it? The large corporation I work for doesn't have an onsite childcare center. Instead we offer discounts for child care elsewhere, near the office, but not in. For a company as private and secretive as Apple, why even expose themselves to the risk of having people walking around a campus that they don't need to be if they can meet the need elsewhere, offsite?

I think it would be great dog food for Apple. Growing up with Apple II's/II GS's/Macs, the amount of educational software I used was astounding. I think my path to becoming an artist/programmer started while playing with Logo in the 5th grade.

Show me how the kids of Apple benefit from this, "Insanely Great" technology.

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