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A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

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Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#151

Post by glhaynes »

dexterdog wrote: post #83
Denzel wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except it makes more sense to depreciate over the useful life of the building (standard: 50 years) which brings you to a more reasonable ~$8k/year/employee cost of building use.

If Apple is still a thing in 30 years do you think this will still be a cool place to be?

Apple will almost certainly still be a thing in 30 years. While it's hard to predict anything about fashion that far into the future, there are lots of buildings that are 30 or more years old that are cool places to be.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#152

Post by usaphp »

killjoywashere wrote: post #149

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...

> restriction of 268,000 lbs or further based on the length of the rail car

We don't know the length of the rail car they used, do we?

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#153

Post by linkregister »

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…

I lived in a city that had a revival of its industrial area. There was no parking garage for the new bars and restaurants, so all visitors simply parked in the residents' neighborhoods. Quality of life drastically declined for those residents, and I ended up having to leave due to family members being unable to find parking in under 30 minutes in the evening.

Public transit in the city was underfunded so it was only realistic for certain commutes within the city.

I have no idea why suburban Cupertino would be worried about this risk; it sounds like an underhanded way to limit occupancy and capacity (you build a 1000-person office instead of 2000, because you had to have extra space for parking).

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#154

Post by apeace »

> As part of its ecological efforts to prevent such a crisis, Apple claims, its buildings will run solely on sustainable energy, most of it from solar arrays on the roofs.

Does it make economic sense to NOT build solar arrays on new buildings these days? Even for your average-sized office or apartment building. It seems the added cost would only push the budget up marginally in most cases.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#155

Post by arrrg »

jonknee wrote: post #90
asimpletune wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, how can you say that? There is absolutely nothing but love put into this building. Jobs spent his last years on earth dedicated to it, to every single last detail, because he wanted a home for apple, a real home. It's easy to be cynical, but I think it's hard and therefore admirable to rise above that tendency when something truly beautiful and genuine comes along. Now I don't blame you for feeling that way…

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.

The personal spaces inside the pods seem to provide space for at most two people if they were working there constantly (two tables on either side). There are walls on three sides and a glass wall with door on the fourth. So that’s not really an open office floor plan.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#156

Post by linkregister »

Analemma_ wrote: post #123
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.

You're underestimating how much people love their cars. I formerly worked at Microsoft (the Redmond campus), which bends over backwards and does pretty much everything possible to keep people from driving to work. They have company shuttle buses, they give you a free card for public transit (and Seattle's is pretty good, compared to the Bay Area's), they pay you a bonus for using carpools/vanpools, and they have bike…

It's not like these people are being irrational. If driving is faster, then these folks will do so. Given the property prices in the Seattle area, they are probably as close as possible to work as their budget will allow. They're probably at the edge of their tolerable commute as it is.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#157

Post by njarboe »

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.

Fast, on-demand, point-to-point transportation in the company of your choice, with the option of hauling more stuff than you can carry on your person, will always be attractive. If the cars drive themselves, that would be ideal. I'd say let's figure out a way to let everyone use that system. The Boring Company is a start. It seems to me in the currently ascending culture that a good person is expected to show a dislike for cars. Maybe for the vehicles of the future to be accepted their name needs to change. Pods? Apple could make a version.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#158

Post by arrrg »

twoodfin wrote: post #9

The pods seem quite nicely designed and close to ideal for team development—fully "sealable" for sound isolation while retaining some visual exposure so you can tell at a glance if someone's in a good state for interruption. But... unless they made some poor choices in framing the shots, is there really no proximate view outside to this lovingly engineered park? Opposite the glass wall, I hope?

I assume by “pods” you refer to the small personal spaces with the two tables? I’m not quite clear on the terminology myself, but it seems to me that the pods are actually a collection of those small personal spaces plus the shared social space (basically the hallway between).

How would you accomplish giving everyone a view of the outside? The building is far too large for that, i.e. it would not be possible for everyone to get a view to the outside.

It seems to me that in general the common spaces have the views to the outside, but I also would like to know whether there are any office-like spaces with actual views to the outside.

To me that seems a pretty good approach. I need more secluded spaces to work (where a view of the nature doens’t really help), but walks and nature helps me to think.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#159

Post by giarc »

refurb wrote: post #87
visakanv wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5%? $250,000,000 a year to maintain a building? I don't know anything about building maintenance costs, but a quarter of a billion dollars a year seems a little excessive. How do you arrive at that figure?

Seems high. For residential real estate, you usually estimate 1% of a home's cost. So for the campus it would be $50M per year, which wouldn't surprise me in the least.

A lot of that would be energy costs as well, which the new building will have for much cheaper with the solar panels on the roof.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#160

Post by giobox »

csomar wrote: post #146
chx wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The idea that roads and related infrastructure is paid entirely or even largely from taxes on road users is a huge myth that persists in a large number of western nations. In most of them, car owners merely contribute to the cost of roads via the taxes you mention, the bulk of the monies to pay road related costs still comes from other sources unrelated to roads or cars at all. Last I read on the subject, in the USA the breakdown was supposedly closer to 50% road related taxes, 50% general taxation paying for roads. I'm not that bothered personally, but I can absolutely understand why this might bother some - car owners are effectively subsidized by all tax payers to a large extent.
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