The San Jose Mercury News reports that California Governor Jerry Brown's office has approved Apple's "Campus 2" project in Cupertino for a streamlined environmental review process. The new designation will not speed up construction on the project, which is scheduled to begin in early 2013, but will simplify the review process over the coming months.

"Apple's state-of-the art campus brings at least $100 million dollars in investment to California and generates no additional greenhouse gas emissions," Brown said in a statement to this newspaper, listing two of the requirements Apple had met to qualify under the law. "On-site fuel cells and 650,000 square feet of solar panels will provide clean, renewable energy for more than 12,000 Apple employees on the new campus."

apple campus 2 rendering
Under the "leadership project" designation, any legal challenges to the project review would be fast-tracked through the courts, helping to minimize potential delays as Apple seeks to open the campus in 2015.

Top Rated Comments

JesterJJZ Avatar
170 months ago
Unless the campus has underground tunnels criss-crossing from one end to the other... it's going to be a pain to go from one end to the other.

Or they can, you know, go outside and walk across the gigantic park in the middle...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
flipperfeet Avatar
170 months ago
You cut through the courtyard....
People who do not live in the SF Bay Area have a hard time understanding you can move freely outdoors with not much more than a light coat and occasional umbrella 355 days of the year. :)

edit: hilarious a statement of fact about weather in Cupertino gets me a vote down.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thelink Avatar
170 months ago
I hope this means more Apple products :D :apple:
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kjs862 Avatar
170 months ago
This building is going to be awesome!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
firewood Avatar
170 months ago

Several posters here have identified the most obvious issue, which is the vast scale of the building and the problems inherent with traveling from one side of the building to the other.
HP employees were often seen taking a quick walk around the entire current building complex after lunch. It's not that big, and the round building will be smaller in total circumference.

Third, the plan dictated the complete isolation of this building from the surrounding grid. It's a single, gigantic segregated land use requiring everyone who wants to do anything but work or eat at the company cafeteria to get into their car and drive somewhere else.
This site is right across the street from a large Asian market complex and several restaurants, and about 4 blocks walk from a medium size mall with department stores, theaters and restaurants. Maybe 4 blocks walk from a park and community garden. There were HP employees who could walk to work from the suburban neighborhoods across the street.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cvaldes Avatar
170 months ago
Here we ******** go. AGAIN.

Fine.
Pretty much everything, from what I have seen thus far. It seems clear that the central organizing principle here is the circular plan. It's the kind of sexy form that Steve loved in consumer products, but plan abstraction is not necessarily a good place to start with architecture.

Several posters here have identified the most obvious issue, which is the vast scale of the building and the problems inherent with traveling from one side of the building to the other. Maybe Steve is having a conversation with God at this very moment and has persuaded Him to make rain fall less often over Cupertino, but failing intervention from the Almighty, employees in this building are going to be taking a lot of long hikes.
Probably underground radial tunnels. Not to mention that walking around in NorCal is pretty fine about 300 days of the year. The other sixty days? Well, it sucks, because there's this wet stuff falling out of the sky. It's not like it snows on the valley floor in Cupertino.

(Well, okay, it did in 1976, but it melted before lunchtime that day. And it was a sunny morning.)

Second, the circular plan means that the building will be essentially devoid of the kinds of visual cues that we use to know where we are. Every angle of the building will look the same, at least externally. Internally I'd expect much the same problem to occur. This building is probably going to be very disorienting.
Not much different than a square or any other shaped building. The various "zones" of the building could be color-coded (like parking garages). Also, the light from the windows will probably give people a clue to where they are in the building.

Third, the plan dictated the complete isolation of this building from the surrounding grid. It's a single, gigantic segregated land use requiring everyone who wants to do anything but work or eat at the company cafeteria to get into their car and drive somewhere else. A less dogmatic approach to architectural objectification would have accommodated a building more integrated into the place where it exists and have been more functional in that respect as well.
Christ, we are talking about Cupertino. There's no place to GO in Cupertino. There's no downtown area. Where are you gonna go? BJ's? Paul and Eddie's? The Target on Stevens Creek Boulevard? SQ Noodle? Vivi's? Yamagami's Nursery?

The two most crowded places at lunchtime on a weekday are the main post office and the Whole Foods Market express checkout lines.

Oh yeah, I guess you've never been to Cupertino. In that case, stop talking about it like you know the place.

Cupertino is a bunch of office complexes. The rest of it is nondescript residential areas that happen to feed some of the South Bay's best public school districts. Other than that, Cupertino is entirely nondescript.

Campus 2 has a shuttle service area for commuting to other complexes (like 1 Infinite Loop).

Those are just some of the more apparent functional issues with this building.
Yeah, keep criticizing a building in a town where you have never ever stepped foot in.

I've never been to Palookaville, but it probably isn't much different than Cupertino.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple m5

Apple's Upcoming Macs Listed in New Report

Thursday July 3, 2025 9:09 am PDT by
AppleInsider's Marko Zivkovic today shared a list of alleged identifiers for future Mac models, which should roll out over the next year or so. The report does not reveal anything too surprising, but it does serve as further evidence that Apple is seemingly working on new models of every Mac, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Apple is...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...