Apple's new headquarters, Apple Campus 2, represents one of Steve Jobs' last projects, so it's only fitting that so much attention is being paid to the smallest of details.
Apple hasn't been timid in its demands, and they often seem to fly in the face of conventional construction. However, in the end, they'll have a building like no other that truly reflects the company.
The new campus, with 2.82 million square-feet of office space, is believed to have set Apple back a cool $5 billion.
According to many of the project's former workers, Apple has spent a lot of time and money on tiny details to make the building as smooth and flawless as the iconic iPhone. Even the the signage for the fire escape plans required at least 15 meetings, and no vents or pipes can be reflected in the glass. Apple went so far as to provide 30 pages of guidelines about what wood could be used where in the building.
It's all about re-creating the phone that made the company, but on a massive scale. One architect who worked on the project, German de la Torre, saw the iPhone everywhere he looked, from the home-button-like elevator buttons to the curve of a rounded corner.
Another former manager saw the iPhone in the building's sleek new toilets. Even the tolerances required by Apple were iPhone-like, much smaller than the industry standard of 1/8 inch.
It's ultimately not necessarily the iPhone they're seeing, but Apple's design principles overall – the same ones responsible for the iPhone itself.
And that might not make for the most practical building – the fastest trip to the other side of the building will require leaving the building – but from the polished concrete ceiling tiles to the flat, threshold-less doorways, Apple is building a unique structure that everyone will want to see inside.
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