Drone videographer Duncan Sinfield posted a new video on his YouTube channel today, offering a "late July" bird's eye view of Apple Park, the company's new headquarters in Cupertino, California.
Sinfield's video reveals landscaping around the campus has picked up momentum in the last few weeks, with a large grove of trees in the inner circle of Apple Park being the clearest sign of progress.
When finished, Apple Park will be surrounded by some 9,000 trees. The landscaping is being overseen by an arborist personally chosen by the late Steve Jobs, who believed trees would be one of the most important parts of the Park and represent a microcosm of the old Silicon Valley, when there were said to be more fruit trees than engineers.
Tantau Avenue, which runs along the east side of the campus, has been closed to vehicle traffic for much of July as Apple works rapidly to finish the Visitor's Center ahead of the official opening day. Apple started hiring employees last month for the Visitor Center, which will include an Apple Store and a public cafe.
Earlier this month we got a glimpse of Apple Park's Glendenning Barn, a historic landmark that the company carefully dismantled piece by piece and relocated to another part of the site, which was formerly a HP campus.
Top Rated Comments
Instead, Apple and Steve Jobs chose to build a campus that fit their vision and tastes...and the goobers complain.
The fact that 5, 6, or whatever billion is actually a minor expense in relation to Apple's operations and value, should be a point of optimism to any reasonable person.
This reminds me of the old fable of the blind men each examining part of an elephant, and each declaring his own erroneous estimation of the nature of the beast.
Apple is the most valuable company on the planet and in all of known history. Give Apple its due. None of this was easily come by.
I look at this as a new phase for the company, and an entirely essential organizational evolution. The ring layout implies enhanced inter-departmental coordination and efficiency. The Apple team needs these enhancements now more than ever.
I've been a happy Apple customer for over 30 years, and I'm more optimistic now than ever for its continued well being and prosperity.
This is reported to be running, so far, around $5 billion, and that's only the cost to Apple. This article alludes to the peripheral costs of escalating property value estimates for the surrounding area. Houses are doubling and tripling in cost, and they weren't exactly cheap in the first place. Another thing I wonder, given the sometimes fleeting lifetimes and fates of tech corporations - remember Digital Equipment Corporation, which was a staple for at least half my 35 year career, from PDP-11s, Dec-10/20s and Vaxes, all the way to Alpha servers? - what will this huge thing look like in 20 or 30 years? And what will happen to this property, should Apple go under, downsize, or reinvent itself? But yes, it is quite a world wonder. So was Houston's Astrodome 50 years ago.