Skip to main content

As Apple pursues perfection, new campus frustrates builders and officials

apple spaceship campus 2
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Apple has long been lauded for its attention to detail and emphasis on build quality and it seems that ambition extends to the construction of its facilities. According to Reuters, the company made numerous demands as it prepares Apple Campus 2, more colloquially referred to as the “spaceship campus,” to ensure a level of craftsmanship more befitting of a phone or watch than a building meant to employ 14,000 workers.

For starters, Apple’s new Cupertino, California, headquarters supposedly boasts the largest panel of curved glass ever made — though that was probably evident from the exterior shots. Inside, Apple has stipulated a lengthy list of requirements.

Recommended Videos

The ceiling tiles, made of polished concrete, were each examined twice by company representatives to ensure perfection. The door handles, free of imperfections down to the nanometer, according to the construction team, were rejected by Apple in favor of a redesign. All pipes and beams in the ceiling had to be concealed from view, so they would not appear in reflections off the glass.

Even the signage was a source of frustration. The Santa Clara County Fire Department reportedly clashed with the company over designs that emphasized minimalism over function in the event of an emergency. Retired Deputy Fire Chief Dirk Mattern told Reuters the issue came up in 15 different meetings, and that he had “never spent so much time on signage.”

These considerations might be commonplace for a handheld device but for a facility of Campus 2’s scale, they are unheard of. In most buildings, the tolerance that materials are allowed to differ from specific measurements is about 1/8 of an inch. Channeling the iPhone’s seamless panel gaps, Apple mandated far tighter tolerances, even for inconspicuous surfaces.

“You would never design to that level of tolerance on a building,” one architect said. “The doors would jam.”

Speaking of which, Apple was reportedly adamant that the doorways throughout the entire building be perfectly flat, with no thickness around the threshold. If an engineer had to adjust his form to move differently through a doorway, he might become distracted from his work, the company reasoned. One former construction manager said he spent months pushing back on the request, “because that’s time money and stuff that’s never been done before.”

The spaceship campus has been said to evoke many design cues from famous Apple products. Lead architect German de la Torre likened the building’s curves to the rounded rectangle motif the company employs in much of its hardware and software. Other employees compared the elevator controls to the iPhone’s home button.

It may come as little surprise that Skanska USA and DPR Construction, the contractors on the project when it broke ground in 2011, eventually bailed. Experts estimate the facility has cost Apple $5 billion and those close to the project said difficulties with the approval process have nudged completion to the spring.

Adam Ismail
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Adam’s obsession with tech began at a young age, with a Sega Dreamcast – and he’s been hooked ever since. Previously…
Apple just announced a new iPad mini. Here are all the big upgrades
The Apple iPad mini (A17 Pro).

Apple has announced an all-new iPad mini. This seventh-generation model, which has long been anticipated, features an A17 Pro chip designed to support Apple Intelligence. Visually, it looks just like the last iPad mini, but there are some key upgrades under the hood.

The A17 Pro chip, also found on the iPhone 15 Pro series, features a 6-core CPU that delivers 30% better performance than the previous model. Its 5-core GPU also offers improved graphics performance. In addition to an A17 Pro chip, the 2024 iPad mini features an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display, a 12MP primary camera, and support for the Apple Pencil Pro.

Read more
We might know the release day for Apple’s new iPad mini
The iPad Mini and Apple pencil work very well together.

The wait for a new iPad mini is nearly over. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, a next-generation model should be announced and launched in the coming weeks. This will end a long, three-year wait for a fresh iPad mini. Gurman says the seventh-generation iPad mini 7 could ship on Friday, November 1, after an announcement toward the end of this month.

Little is known about the new iPad mini, although we can probably make some educated guesses. The device will most likely feature an Apple M2 chip, the same one found in the iPad Air (2024). The new tablet could also come with a 12MP ultrawide camera in landscape orientation, provide support for the Apple Pencil Pro, and bring various other improvements.

Read more
Apple’s tabletop device might usher in a new OS with Apple Intelligence
Apple HomePod 2023

Apple has reportedly been working on a new kind of display-focused smart home device for a while now, and it seems it will arrive as early as next year. Now, Bloomberg reports that Apple is eyeing not one but two such devices across different price points and that they will mark the era of a new AI-first software approach.

Codenamed J595, this one is a high-end machine that features a large iPad-inspired screen and robotic limbs. The other one, which internally goes by the J490 identifier, is more like a conventional smart display — think a screen slapped on a speaker base – that would predominantly serve as a FaceTime machine and smart home control hub.

Read more