Mysterious Apple Park Arch is for a May 17 Event Celebrating Steve Jobs and Formal Apple Park Opening

A curious stage with a rainbow-colored arch was spotted yesterday in drone footage we shared of the Apple Park campus, leading to speculation about what it might be for.

As it turns out, the arch, which is in the rainbow colors of the original Mac logo, is for an upcoming May 17 employee event that will celebrate the formal opening of ‌Apple Park‌ and serve as a tribute to Steve Jobs, who conceptualized the spaceship-like design of the main building on the campus prior to his death.

appleparkrainbowarch
Details on the event and an interview with Apple design chief Jony Ive were shared by Cult of Mac after the site obtained a copy of internal information about the project that was originally shared with Apple employees.

Jony Ive's design team created the multicolored arch in partnership with a custom concert staging company, and conceptualizing the design took months of work. It's made from 30 unique machined components that make it easy to build up and take down for special events, but there are 25,000 parts in all including the structure itself and the metal skeleton underneath.


According to Ive, the overall goal was to "create a stage that would become immediately recognizable as the Apple Stage." The rainbow color was chosen because it's "been part of [Apple's] identity for many years."

Ive also said that the rainbow's presence is "keenly felt in many places" and that at the end of the day, it's "hard to find somebody that doesn't love a rainbow."

There is the resonance with the rainbow logo that's been part of our identity for many years. The rainbow is also a positive and joyful expression of some of our inclusion values and I think that one of the primary reasons the idea resonated so immediately and so profoundly with us was the form -- the connection from an aesthetic design point of view. A semi-circle relates so beautifully and naturally to the form of the ring.

The arch was created to be a three-dimensional object able to be "appreciated in the round" rather than just the front.

If you look at a plan view of Apple Park, the rainbow occupies an almost insignificant area. But it has a relevance and impact that is disproportionate to the area it occupies.

My space in Apple Park is on the external part of the perimeter. But I can see the rainbow reflected in the ceiling all the way through to where I sit. That truly wasn't planned but one of those lucky accidents.

We had planned the way in which the colors interplay between the discrete bands of the rainbow throughout the day making it more vital and fluid. There are some wonderful but subtle combinations and reflections.

It sounds like the rainbow arch won't be a permanent fixture at the campus, but will be able to be removed and put back up for various events hosted at ‌Apple Park‌.

There are no details on Apple's May 17 event for employees, but MacRumors was told that there will be a big name artist performing at the event. Apple's ‌Apple Park‌ Visitor's Center will be closed on May 17 due to the event.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's broader...

Top Rated Comments

garnerx Avatar
80 months ago
Jony Ive's design team created the multicolored arch in partnership with a custom concert staging company, and conceptualizing the design took months of work.
Oh. My. God.
Score: 76 Votes (Like | Disagree)
johnyslats Avatar
80 months ago
Explains the lack of a radical iPhone redesign this year. The design team sure have had their hands full!
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tgwaste Avatar
80 months ago
At this point, everyone at Apple is just completely full of BS.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Williesleg Avatar
80 months ago
I miss Steve Jobs.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cb3 Avatar
80 months ago
"... Jony Ive's design team created the multicolored arch in partnership with a custom concert staging company, and conceptualizing the design took months of work. ..."

This is why you won't be seeing a new Mac Pro this year.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
now i see it Avatar
80 months ago
its as if everything the guy does has to be some sort of Moby Dick masterpiece. It's just a multicolored arched stage. Geezus
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)