It was back in June when we last talked about Apple’s 2nd mothership, or the proposed circular spaceship-like campus that’s currently planned to occupy a 98-acre plot of land purchased from Hewlett Packard (the total campus area includes 175 acres of land). On Wednesday, new revisions surfaced from the City of Cupertino detailing the new campus submissions from Apple, which includes new renderings and details about the structure’s massive size.
Apple’s future campus lies between four main roads: Homestead Road to the north, I-280 to the south, North Tantau Avenue to the east, and Wolfe Road to the west. At the center of that property, Apple plans to build a four story circular building that measures 1615 feet (492.25 meters) at its diameter, will total 2.8 million square feet of above ground space, and accommodate 13,000 employees. (Steve Jobs noted he wanted a campus large enough for 12,000 employees to call home when he met with the Cupertino City Council in June). The campus will include underground parking at the “park” entrance and underneath the circular campus itself, containing 9,000 parking spaces. The revised application includes an expansion for a corporate fitness center from 25,000 square feet to 45,000 square feet, with the facility’s height reduced to 18 feet compared to the first submittal’s 30 feet. Also included will be a 1,000 seat auditorium and a 58,250 square foot dining facility. On the roof, a 500,000 square-foot area has been designated for planting and greenery. The remainder of the surrounding area will consist of new 300,000 square-feet research facilities that house technical support functions adjacent to the main building.
The most impressive proposal for Apple’s new campus involves Apple’s solar roof. SethWeintraub from 9to5 Mac estimates that the surface area of the roof spans 750,000 feet (228,600 meters). Provided that photovoltaic cells from the Solar Panels will generate 10 watts of power per-square-foot in the favorably sunny climate of Cupertino, he estimates that Apple’s solar roof would generate 5,000,000 watts of power. That doesn’t begin to count the additional solar panels on surrounding campus buildings (such as a partially above ground parking lot whose canopy spans another 320,000 square feet). Apple’s 5 megawatts of generated power would trump Google, whose solar allocation only generates 1.6 MW of power. Weintraub writes that in comparison, Apple’s solar roof could simultaneously power a million 6W Apple TVs. 9to5 Mac’s Christian Zibreg notes that a Central Plant along I-280 will provide most of the power needed for Apple’s campus.
The City of Cupertino makes available the site plan introduction, landscaping, floor plan, and renderings of the proposed campus. Below, we’ve included some of our favorite renderings.
