A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus • Hacker News Board

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#141

Post by jshevek » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:31 PM UTC

dntrkv wrote: post #125

jshevek wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy to be cynical, hard to admire? No. It's easy to be a fanboy, hard to take an honest look at how this is just a prettier beehive for the drones.

What is with this cynicism? Bay area tech "drones" are some of the luckiest workers in the world. I work at a pretty average tech company here in the bay and every day I am amazed at how good I have it. I get paid multiple times the country average, I live in a beautiful city, I take at least a month off per year, I work with awesome people on fun projects using cool, new tech. Jesus, what more could you ask for? Mos…

The top comment did not say what you claim they said.

Being "no different" is not the same as "still the same in certain respects"

I don't think this building is "ridiculously cool."

"Out of their way" ? Are you suggesting altruism or generosity?

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#142

Post by jacobolus » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:33 PM UTC

macNchz wrote: post #140

mxfh wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is building 11,000 parking spaces not because it wants to but because Cupertino, the suburban city where the new headquarters is located, demands it. Cupertino has a requirement for every building. http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21720269-dont-let-peo... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14067658

From the linked article re Cupertino: > For a fast-food restaurant, the city demands one space for every three seats; for a bowling alley, seven spaces per lane plus one for every worker. I've read a bunch of articles about the negative externalities of minimum parking requirements, but haven't really seen one explore the why behind these rules. What does it matter to the city if a bowling alley doesn't have enough p…

A few cities started making up parking requirements, and then others copied them. The way they decided how many parking spaces were needed was by looking at peak demand and then forcing all businesses to have enough parking to never run out. Since the ones making these decisions are local officials, copying another city’s regulation is easier than doing a serious study of real parking needs. Nobody ever thought very systemically about this until the whole thing had been in place throughout suburban America for years.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#143

Post by nemo44x » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

pplonski86 wrote: post #3

12000 people in one building - wow!

Consider the World Trade Center had about 50,000 people working in it before 9/11.

But 12,000 is about on scale with the entire Sears Tower (Willis Tower) in Chicago.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#144

Post by ac29 » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

Arizhel wrote: post #114

Someone1234 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your car point. The problem is we current have three choices: - Cars - "Company Store"-style housing (e.g. get fired, get made homeless) - Good public transport. The third option is obviously the best but it is outside of any single company's control. To get good quality public transport the entire city (or cities) need to be onboard, invest sometimes billions of dollars, and likely run it at a near loss…

They could build SkyTran. It's perfectly suited for the Bay Area. The tech companies together could easily invest in it and bring it to fruition; the fundamental technology is already developed. The other thing they can do is what Google does: buy their own buses and bus in some of the employees from key locations. It's not exactly "public transport", but it's pretty close, and doesn't make anyone homeless if they lo…

> The other thing they can do is what Google does: buy their own buses and bus in some of the employees from key locations.

They do that already. I work down the street from the current Apple headquarters and the sheer amount of Apple buses during commute hours is insane. They must come every few minutes from 8-10a and 4-7p or so, because its rare for me to see less than 2 or 3 within a couple blocks of HQ during those hours.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#145

Post by madengr » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:36 PM UTC

The glass doors are only 4 stories tall? Meh, the doors to the throne room in Dune Messiah were over 200 foot tall.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#146

Post by csomar » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:36 PM UTC

chx wrote: post #137

csomar wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense but I hear this a lot "Why not public transportation?" Well, why not a car if people wanted to have a car? With Tesla and new E.V.s hitting the market, the primary reason (pollution) is gone.

Cars take a lot of space though in the form of roads and parking lots.

So? Car owners will pay that bill from car taxes, parking tickets, etc... Why does that bother you?

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#147

Post by thegranderson » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:39 PM UTC

jimlawruk wrote: post #102

jonknee wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Requirements are made to be made exceptions for and Apple had $5b of leverage. They probably just wanted the parking.

Yeah. A simple donation to the local municipality would have gotten this requirement waived. I once heard of a company getting past height restrictions by simply buying the town a few new firetrucks.

In what way is this "donation" not a bribe? Just because it goes to the government at large vs. an individual?

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#148

Post by mortenjorck » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:39 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #103

jonknee wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still a car focused suburban office park with an open office floor plan... No amount of love is going to change the fundamentals.

I agree with your car point. The problem is we current have three choices: - Cars - "Company Store"-style housing (e.g. get fired, get made homeless) - Good public transport. The third option is obviously the best but it is outside of any single company's control. To get good quality public transport the entire city (or cities) need to be onboard, invest sometimes billions of dollars, and likely run it at a near loss…

Why not "mixed employment" housing: Company housing that also rents at market rate to the public?

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#149

Post by killjoywashere » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:40 PM UTC

440,000 lb per door?! That exceeds the load rating of mainline rail (1)! Hope they have some plans for replacing the load bearings now and again.

(1) https://www.up.com/aboutup/reference/maps/allowable_gross_we...

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#150

Post by giarc » Tue, May 16, 2017, 4:48 PM UTC

macNchz wrote: post #140

mxfh wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is building 11,000 parking spaces not because it wants to but because Cupertino, the suburban city where the new headquarters is located, demands it. Cupertino has a requirement for every building. http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21720269-dont-let-peo... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14067658

From the linked article re Cupertino: > For a fast-food restaurant, the city demands one space for every three seats; for a bowling alley, seven spaces per lane plus one for every worker. I've read a bunch of articles about the negative externalities of minimum parking requirements, but haven't really seen one explore the why behind these rules. What does it matter to the city if a bowling alley doesn't have enough p…

A bowling alley with no parking quickly stops being a bowling alley. The city has an interest in ensuring businesses remain in business so they can continue to collect taxes from them.