Apple’s new 175-acre campus will be up and running in April, the company confirmed today.
The whole thing is powered by 100 percent renewable energy. With 17 megawatts of rooftop solar, Apple Park will run one of the largest on-site solar energy installations in the world.
It is also the site of the world’s largest naturally ventilated building, projected to require no heating or air conditioning for nine months of the year.
The ring-shaped, 2.6 million-square-metre main building is clad entirely in the world’s largest panels of curved glass, and will contain a 1,000-seat auditorium on top of a hill – named in honour of Steve Jobs.
The entrance to the auditorium is via a is a 6 metre tall glass cylinder, 50 metres in diameter, topped off with a metallic carbon-fibre roof.
12,000 people will work from the campus, and it will take six months for them to all relocate.
Apple Park will also include a visitors centre with an Apple Store and cafe open to the public, a 9,000-square-metre fitness centre for Apple employees, secure research and development facilities and the Steve Jobs Theater. The parklands have three kilometres of walking and running paths for employees, plus an orchard a meadow and a pond.