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Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

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Re: Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

#81

Post by hugh3 »

swombat wrote: post #70
pjy04 wrote: post #8

They should have asked when the iPhone 5 is coming out Plus: very sneaky for the council to ask for free wifi, ipads, more apple stores, donations for schools in this presentation...

An architect friend of mine commented: "they always ask for free wifi". He also said that it's amazing salesmanship on Steve Jobs' part to have pitched this and basically given nothing to the council. Most councils manage to squeeze all sorts of concessions from even large multinationals (e.g. banks in the UK). Steve gave them, basically, nothing - not even free wifi. If they'd been more savvy they could probably hav…

If they'd been more savvy they could probably have had their free wifi and Apple store - it's cheaper to Apple than relocating 10k employees to another city and drawing all the plans again from scratch. Steve may be known for holding grudges, but he's also a relatively rational businessman.

Yes and no. You don't necessarily want to play chicken with Steve Jobs' ego. Cupertino is lucky to have Apple -- Cupertino knows it, and Apple knows it. If they start giving him a hard time getting his building approved then he's not going to knock down Infinite Loop, but he could well start entertaining offers from neighbouring cities which would no doubt fall over themselves to get the second Appleplex.

Re: Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

#82

Post by bonzoesc »

thingie wrote: post #49

I work in a small office park located quite similarly on a grassy field locked entirely by some freeways and other large roads, though the buildings here are cheap and ugly, but even if they weren't, it'd still totally suck. It's isolated, not a part of the city, essentially, it's just a large parking lot (most of which is below the ground, but that doesn't really change anything). It's quite disappointing. Maybe it'…

Isolation and centralization is useful for the corporation; they have more control over physical security, can manage it so employees tend to interact only with other employees, and it costs a lot less to have space for 12,000 employees off the interstate than to have them downtown (if Silicon Valley towns even have "downtowns;" I know far-flung Miami exurbs usually don't.)

Re: Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

#83

Post by 6ren »

pedrokost wrote: post #80
6ren wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the question about traffic was good - there will be congestion, with so many people gather in one place. I'm surprised that Jobs attended - the project must be very important to him personally, and he didn't want the slightest risk of it being derailed.

You are wrong. Previously the place was used by HW, with some 9k employes. There will only be a 3k increase in number of workers, which as jobs said is about 20% more people. Sure, 20% is noticeable, but one should analyse the roads and connections to the campus to know how noticeable will those 20% more traffic be.

You say I'm wrong, then you admit 20% is noticeable and there may be congestion, and it's worth checking out. What kind of "wrong" is that?

From 9k to 12k is a 33% increase. If we take the actual figure Jobs gave for comfort - 13k - it is an increase of 44%.

Re: Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

#84

Post by joubert »

Steko wrote: post #62

Just for perspective: Proposed Appleplex: 1.4 mil sq ft (?), 12-13k employees Pentagon: 6.5 mil sq ft (3.7 mil for offices), 26k employees Empire State Building: 2.8 mil sq ft, 21k (?) employees

One thing I cringed at in Jobs' presentation was framing the 4-story high design as "human scale". The Empire State Building is also human scale.

Re: Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

#85

Post by dctoedt »

dpatru wrote: post #76
Steko wrote: post #62

Just for perspective: Proposed Appleplex: 1.4 mil sq ft (?), 12-13k employees Pentagon: 6.5 mil sq ft (3.7 mil for offices), 26k employees Empire State Building: 2.8 mil sq ft, 21k (?) employees

The Pentegon is not under market pressure to be efficient or turn a profit. They don't even get audited.

> The Pentegon [sic; Pentagon] is not under market pressure to be efficient or turn a profit. They don't even get audited.

The GAO [1] does something close to auditing - although the Pentagon's financial statements aren't in the kind of shape that they even can be audited (something the GAO and DOD are working on). [2]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Accountability_Offic...

[2] http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20100930/DEPARTMENTS01/9...

Re: Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

#87

Post by kabdib »

A bit of Silly Valley lore: Go graph "Company builds a new campus" against "Company stock falls like a rock."

Atari, 1983.

Apple, 1991.

Sun (both times, I forget the years).

SGI, 1990s.

Various other companies (I forget which, it's been a while). It's like the hubris builds up to the point where the company is in a natural position to say, "Hey, we need a new campus," and the Gods decide that a little humiliation is in order as well . . .

Re: Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

#88

Post by enra »

kabdib wrote: post #87

A bit of Silly Valley lore: Go graph "Company builds a new campus" against "Company stock falls like a rock." Atari, 1983. Apple, 1991. Sun (both times, I forget the years). SGI, 1990s. Various other companies (I forget which, it's been a while). It's like the hubris builds up to the point where the company is in a natural position to say, "Hey, we need a new campus," and the Gods decide that a little humiliation is…

Steve Blank has wrote about "Curse of a new building" http://steveblank.com/2009/05/15/supermac-war-story-11-the-c...

Re: Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

#89

Post by Kadrith »

memoryfault wrote: post #38
jacoblyles wrote: post #37

Apple style - one monolithic building designed down to the square foot. Google style - a motley assortment of buildings spread out over a large campus, some of which are better than others.

I have to ask - what is Microsoft style? Edit: Disclosure, I have been to Microsoft's campus, but I just couldn't help but ask this question. :)

I like the style of Epic Systems in Verona, WI. They have separate buildings connected by underground tunnels with geothermal heating/cooling for all of the buildings. Recently they started putting in solar and are working to increase that to the point of covering their energy needs. Parking is almost all underground with the ground around their campus designated as farmland so that nobody can build on it; they do run a farm on the land as well which I believe helps supply their cafeteria.

Every conference room has a theme and they allow self-guided tours. My favorite conference room is one where half of the room opens up to a pond that has a wooden walk way around it and a waterfall.

http://hq.construction.com/snapshots/0911_EpicSoftware.asp

http://www.jsonline.com/business/123206273.html

Re: Steve Jobs Presents His Ideas For A New Apple Campus

#90

Post by panacea »

hugh3 wrote: post #81
swombat wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An architect friend of mine commented: "they always ask for free wifi". He also said that it's amazing salesmanship on Steve Jobs' part to have pitched this and basically given nothing to the council. Most councils manage to squeeze all sorts of concessions from even large multinationals (e.g. banks in the UK). Steve gave them, basically, nothing - not even free wifi. If they'd been more savvy they could probably hav…

If they'd been more savvy they could probably have had their free wifi and Apple store - it's cheaper to Apple than relocating 10k employees to another city and drawing all the plans again from scratch. Steve may be known for holding grudges, but he's also a relatively rational businessman. Yes and no. You don't necessarily want to play chicken with Steve Jobs' ego. Cupertino is lucky to have Apple -- Cupertino knows…

Speaking of his ego. He must be pissed that he couldn't get that small patch of real estate in the lower left corner. The neighbours have made a powerful enemy ;]
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