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Beautiful building. I wonder though - for those who read the article and have worked in both suburban environments and urban ones - would you rather work in th

Beautiful building. I wonder though - for those who read the article and have worked in both suburban environments and urban ones - would you rather work in the amazing Apple spaceship in the suburbs, or a normal office building in a city-center? For me, I think I'd still prefer a short commute and the density of stuff that comes with being downtown.

draw_down 9y ago
Which means they better make that office in the suburbs extra appealing. Like this one is.
wil421 9y ago
It's only a short commute if you lived downtown, right?. The company I work for is moving from the suburbs to downtown. I live in what is considered "in town" but not quite urban. Honestly it's easier for me to commute out to the suburbs since I am going the opposite flow of traffic. Even though I will use the train to commute downtown it will be longer. Same if I decide to drive, downtown office is half the distance but will take double the time.
Shivetya 9y ago
working from home is my favorite. I currently have this option for the majority of each week and take advantage of it. if not given the choice the shorter the commute the better. as with many, my work location changed long after I settled happily where I am at and seems to only move further away.
1_2__3 9y ago
I love suburbs. They get lots of hate here but I'd take one over a city in a heartbeat. I like doing things that require garages and back yards and sheds.
- quicklyfrozen 9y ago
  And rarely being bothered by noise from my neighbors.
  - Arizhel 9y ago
    What are you talking about? Every time I've lived in a suburb, I've had neighbors with incessantly barking dogs. Suburbs have been some of the noisiest places I've ever been between all the stupid dogs, the constant noise of lawn mowers and leaf blowers, and all the idiots with noisy motorcycles and big trucks and modified compact cars.
    - quicklyfrozen 9y ago
      I'll take an occasional dog bark or lawn mower noise (usually during the day time) instead of traffic noise, sirens, yelling, loud music, wondering if my car will be vandalized, etc. And aren't modified compact cars more of an urban thing? Mostly SUVs and minivans around here.
      - Arizhel 9y ago
        It wasn't occasional dog barking, it was constant, going on for hours. Add to that one neighbor who had a stupid pit bull that got out a lot, and bit two people. On top of that, at one place I had neighbors across the street who had some stupid friends who drove up every day to pick up someone and honked their horn until that person came out of the house. No, modified compact cars are a suburban thing. It's hard for a young person to modify their car when they don't have a garage. You can't modify your car with some POS muffler in a high-rise. My girlfriend lives in a high-rise in a city. While there are occasional sirens and the regular sound of the subway train, there's no real traffic noise (not close enough to the freeway for that, this is pretty low-traffic residential), and certainly no yelling or loud music, and with the parking being in a parking garage with keycard access there's no worry about car vandalism either. I don't see any shitty modified compact cars there either. Overall, she seems to have less annoying noise than I had to deal with in my suburban homes that I used to live in. I'll take train noise over barking dogs any time. I don't know what the problem is with so many Americans that they just love the sound of dogs barking their heads off for hours and hours. But I only have seen this in suburbs and rural areas, never cities.
        9y ago
Asooka 9y ago
As a person who can't stand air-conditioned air, I'd love to work in a building that breathes. That, and all the other considerations that went into designing this masterpiece make it seem like it would be the most pleasurable corporate environment to work in, period. That said, my ideal workplace would be something like a studio apartment about 6-8 floors above ground, in a temperate climate, with good natural air circulation. In close proximity to the city centre with good food variety, or even better - with a kitchen and the time to cook for myself.
teniutza 9y ago
With so many people working there, I'll be like working in a small(-ish) town. I don't know if the article mentioned it or not, but I would expect that a company of that level would provide some perks, like free snacks. To an employee, it would be like a short stroll to grab a bagel, or whatever people in that region like to eat, with the exception of it being free. One could get used to it, I bet...
- chris_7 9y ago
  Apple makes employees pay for the company cafeteria.
  - teniutza 9y ago
    Ok, on a certain economic level it does make sense to not offer free food for thousands of people. I would expect, however, that a decent meal would not cost as much as it would in a downtown restaurant/café. Are there any infos on prices and food quality?
    - stephencanon 9y ago
      The food is quite good (better than Google's, by my taste, though reasonable people may disagree), and partially subsidized. Lunch runs you ~$8-12 (typical casual lunch prices for the Bay Area, but with better quality). Also many of the individual orgs within Apple do have free snacks for their teams; it's not a campus-wide thing.
tzs 9y ago
I haven't been to Cupertino in many years, but from what I can see on maps and aerial/satellite images it looks like it hasn't changed a lot since I lived there. My recollection is that "suburbs" is not really a good description. Suburbs bring to mind mostly residential neighborhoods with a few big shopping centers here and there, and not much within reasonable walking or biking range. Places where you find yourself often saying "I'll pick that up next time I'm in the city". What it felt like to me was more like if you took several small towns and pushed them all close to each other. I could for the most part get around on my bike, but would occasionally want to go to something too far away (e.g., up to Stanford's bookstore for the annual Springer-Verlag sale). Because it was like a bunch of small towns pushed together, with a layer of residential neighborhoods between them, there were almost always routes for biking between where I was and where the little pocket of density I wanted to be was that would mostly go through those very low traffic residential neighborhoods, so it felt much more safe and relaxing than biking in a major city. (Wow. I just checked rent at the place I used to live. It was called the Villa Serra Apartments then, but is now called the Markham Apartments. I was paying $750/month for a 750 sq. foot apartment in 1991. Now they want between $3100 and $3800/month. Inflation alone would make $750 in 1991 about $1400 today. That's about 2.4% per year. To go from $750 to $3500 would be about 6.1% per year. Ouch!)
- stevenwoo 9y ago
  Your recollection is pretty accurate for today, but it's even denser in all the little towns - almost every single vacant lot is now built up on the main thoroughfares, saw them getting built up over the last fifteen years. Closer to Apple the two exits on 280 backup all the way down the onramp from about 8 to 10 every weekday morning. Still bikeable but have to be very alert when on the main streets in the bike lanes.
- Arizhel 9y ago
  Your description of "several small towns pushed together" basically describes much of northern New Jersey. I used to live there. It was not safe for cycling. The place really was a bunch of small towns, that all ended up growing into one big mass, with little downtown areas with shops, surrounded by residential areas. The problem is that growth was never planned for, so the road system is a mess, and small little 1-lane roads actually serve as the main thoroughfares to get between all these little towns in many places. So there's very few places where it's actually safe to ride a bike if you're trying to actually get anywhere. Riding around a little housing development might be fine, but if you want to go from township A to township B, you're going to be on a very narrow road with a lot of fast-moving cars that are in a big hurry. Worse, cars don't stay in their lanes at all: any time someone is turning left on one of these narrow roads, cars will simply go around them on the shoulder (which AFAICT is perfectly legal there) to avoid waiting and blocking traffic. If you're riding on that shoulder, that's a great way to get hit.
TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
I'd rather work from home, and have done for decades. I'm not convinced it's a beautiful building. It's a very careful building, trying to be a temple and - IMO - failing. What's missing? Randomness. Playfulness. Quirkiness. Fun. Colour. Warmth. Individuality. Art. At Pixar, everyone was encouraged to personalise their work space in a creative way. I can't imagine that happening here, because it would be a mortal wound to the purity. My guess is that it will feel very subtly oppressive rather than delightfully liberating. It'll be a quietly productive environment, in a slightly manic way, but it's hard to be creative when everything and everyone around you has the same company standard officially-approved look and feel.
- santaclaus 9y ago
  > At Pixar, everyone was encouraged to personalise their work space in a creative way. Ehhh? When I interviewed at Pixar it was mostly cubicles, some with two or three people in each cubicle area (higher ups would have nice offices that looked in on the cubicle areas, though).
- clarkmoody 9y ago
  Reminds me of the working environment in GATTACA
- MrZongle2 9y ago
  "What's missing? Randomness. Playfulness. Quirkiness. Fun. Colour. Warmth." That was my take-away as well. It struck me as a monument to just how gosh-darn clever Steve Jobs and Apple are, rather than a place at which the ordinary rank-and-file would want to work.
- Markoff 9y ago
  yep, it looks really awful like something from 80s almost in par with commie architecture, these guys wasting money apparently never heard of Zaha Hadid and likes common, it's just massive boring circle, even Pentagon building is more original, there are only two things making this building interesting - size, Apple HQ make it ten times smaller and put there unknown company and nobody would bother to read about it
kylec 9y ago
would you rather work in the amazing Apple spaceship in the suburbs, or a normal office building in a city-center? I would rather work in any building in the suburbs than any building in a city center. I love being able to get in my car and arrive at work in 10 minutes. Very few public transportation systems can beat that. It also means that I can live in an area where I can drive to and park at restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Live is easier with a car in a suburban area is easier than without one in an urban area.
- linkregister 9y ago
  Trick question: unless you were already a multi-millionaire you wouldn't be able to drive to the Apple spaceship in under 45 minutes.
  - kylec 9y ago
    This is completely untrue. I am most certainly not a multi-millionare and, according to Google Maps, I can drive from my apartment to Apple Park in 13 minutes. I can also get to eBay in 10 and Netflix in 11.
Markoff 9y ago
beautiful building? meh, it's just extremely boring massive ring designed by some megalomaniac without any imagination, it's shame since Apple products have usually decent design but this is shameful mediocrity this is beautiful building which looks cool and like actual 2017, not that Apple thing which looks like something from 80s http://www.archdaily.com/778933/harbin-opera-house-mad-architects http://www.archdaily.com/778933/harbin-opera-house-mad-archi... http://www.architectureartdesigns.com/breathtaking-harbin-opera-house-china-mad-architects/ http://www.architectureartdesigns.com/breathtaking-harbin-op...
- valuearb 9y ago
  The Harbin looks incredibly wasteful of space.
  - Markoff 9y ago
    beautiful building, that's what i was responding to this might be efficient but it's extremely boring not worth articles

draw_down 9y ago

Which means they better make that office in the suburbs extra appealing. Like this one is.

wil421 9y ago

It's only a short commute if you lived downtown, right?. The company I work for is moving from the suburbs to downtown. I live in what is considered "in town" but not quite urban. Honestly it's easier for me to commute out to the suburbs since I am going the opposite flow of traffic. Even though I will use the train to commute downtown it will be longer. Same if I decide to drive, downtown office is half the distance but will take double the time.

Shivetya 9y ago

working from home is my favorite. I currently have this option for the majority of each week and take advantage of it. if not given the choice the shorter the commute the better. as with many, my work location changed long after I settled happily where I am at and seems to only move further away.

1_2__3 9y ago

I love suburbs. They get lots of hate here but I'd take one over a city in a heartbeat. I like doing things that require garages and back yards and sheds.

quicklyfrozen 9y ago
And rarely being bothered by noise from my neighbors.
- Arizhel 9y ago
  What are you talking about? Every time I've lived in a suburb, I've had neighbors with incessantly barking dogs. Suburbs have been some of the noisiest places I've ever been between all the stupid dogs, the constant noise of lawn mowers and leaf blowers, and all the idiots with noisy motorcycles and big trucks and modified compact cars.
  - quicklyfrozen 9y ago
    I'll take an occasional dog bark or lawn mower noise (usually during the day time) instead of traffic noise, sirens, yelling, loud music, wondering if my car will be vandalized, etc. And aren't modified compact cars more of an urban thing? Mostly SUVs and minivans around here.
    - Arizhel 9y ago
      It wasn't occasional dog barking, it was constant, going on for hours. Add to that one neighbor who had a stupid pit bull that got out a lot, and bit two people. On top of that, at one place I had neighbors across the street who had some stupid friends who drove up every day to pick up someone and honked their horn until that person came out of the house. No, modified compact cars are a suburban thing. It's hard for a young person to modify their car when they don't have a garage. You can't modify your car with some POS muffler in a high-rise. My girlfriend lives in a high-rise in a city. While there are occasional sirens and the regular sound of the subway train, there's no real traffic noise (not close enough to the freeway for that, this is pretty low-traffic residential), and certainly no yelling or loud music, and with the parking being in a parking garage with keycard access there's no worry about car vandalism either. I don't see any shitty modified compact cars there either. Overall, she seems to have less annoying noise than I had to deal with in my suburban homes that I used to live in. I'll take train noise over barking dogs any time. I don't know what the problem is with so many Americans that they just love the sound of dogs barking their heads off for hours and hours. But I only have seen this in suburbs and rural areas, never cities.
      - 9y ago

Asooka 9y ago

As a person who can't stand air-conditioned air, I'd love to work in a building that breathes. That, and all the other considerations that went into designing this masterpiece make it seem like it would be the most pleasurable corporate environment to work in, period. That said, my ideal workplace would be something like a studio apartment about 6-8 floors above ground, in a temperate climate, with good natural air circulation. In close proximity to the city centre with good food variety, or even better - with a kitchen and the time to cook for myself.

teniutza 9y ago

With so many people working there, I'll be like working in a small(-ish) town. I don't know if the article mentioned it or not, but I would expect that a company of that level would provide some perks, like free snacks. To an employee, it would be like a short stroll to grab a bagel, or whatever people in that region like to eat, with the exception of it being free. One could get used to it, I bet...

chris_7 9y ago
Apple makes employees pay for the company cafeteria.
- teniutza 9y ago
  Ok, on a certain economic level it does make sense to not offer free food for thousands of people. I would expect, however, that a decent meal would not cost as much as it would in a downtown restaurant/café. Are there any infos on prices and food quality?
  - stephencanon 9y ago
    The food is quite good (better than Google's, by my taste, though reasonable people may disagree), and partially subsidized. Lunch runs you ~$8-12 (typical casual lunch prices for the Bay Area, but with better quality). Also many of the individual orgs within Apple do have free snacks for their teams; it's not a campus-wide thing.

tzs 9y ago

I haven't been to Cupertino in many years, but from what I can see on maps and aerial/satellite images it looks like it hasn't changed a lot since I lived there. My recollection is that "suburbs" is not really a good description. Suburbs bring to mind mostly residential neighborhoods with a few big shopping centers here and there, and not much within reasonable walking or biking range. Places where you find yourself often saying "I'll pick that up next time I'm in the city". What it felt like to me was more like if you took several small towns and pushed them all close to each other. I could for the most part get around on my bike, but would occasionally want to go to something too far away (e.g., up to Stanford's bookstore for the annual Springer-Verlag sale). Because it was like a bunch of small towns pushed together, with a layer of residential neighborhoods between them, there were almost always routes for biking between where I was and where the little pocket of density I wanted to be was that would mostly go through those very low traffic residential neighborhoods, so it felt much more safe and relaxing than biking in a major city. (Wow. I just checked rent at the place I used to live. It was called the Villa Serra Apartments then, but is now called the Markham Apartments. I was paying $750/month for a 750 sq. foot apartment in 1991. Now they want between $3100 and $3800/month. Inflation alone would make $750 in 1991 about $1400 today. That's about 2.4% per year. To go from $750 to $3500 would be about 6.1% per year. Ouch!)

stevenwoo 9y ago
Your recollection is pretty accurate for today, but it's even denser in all the little towns - almost every single vacant lot is now built up on the main thoroughfares, saw them getting built up over the last fifteen years. Closer to Apple the two exits on 280 backup all the way down the onramp from about 8 to 10 every weekday morning. Still bikeable but have to be very alert when on the main streets in the bike lanes.
Arizhel 9y ago
Your description of "several small towns pushed together" basically describes much of northern New Jersey. I used to live there. It was not safe for cycling. The place really was a bunch of small towns, that all ended up growing into one big mass, with little downtown areas with shops, surrounded by residential areas. The problem is that growth was never planned for, so the road system is a mess, and small little 1-lane roads actually serve as the main thoroughfares to get between all these little towns in many places. So there's very few places where it's actually safe to ride a bike if you're trying to actually get anywhere. Riding around a little housing development might be fine, but if you want to go from township A to township B, you're going to be on a very narrow road with a lot of fast-moving cars that are in a big hurry. Worse, cars don't stay in their lanes at all: any time someone is turning left on one of these narrow roads, cars will simply go around them on the shoulder (which AFAICT is perfectly legal there) to avoid waiting and blocking traffic. If you're riding on that shoulder, that's a great way to get hit.

TheOtherHobbes 9y ago

I'd rather work from home, and have done for decades. I'm not convinced it's a beautiful building. It's a very careful building, trying to be a temple and - IMO - failing. What's missing? Randomness. Playfulness. Quirkiness. Fun. Colour. Warmth. Individuality. Art. At Pixar, everyone was encouraged to personalise their work space in a creative way. I can't imagine that happening here, because it would be a mortal wound to the purity. My guess is that it will feel very subtly oppressive rather than delightfully liberating. It'll be a quietly productive environment, in a slightly manic way, but it's hard to be creative when everything and everyone around you has the same company standard officially-approved look and feel.

santaclaus 9y ago
> At Pixar, everyone was encouraged to personalise their work space in a creative way. Ehhh? When I interviewed at Pixar it was mostly cubicles, some with two or three people in each cubicle area (higher ups would have nice offices that looked in on the cubicle areas, though).
clarkmoody 9y ago
Reminds me of the working environment in GATTACA
MrZongle2 9y ago
"What's missing? Randomness. Playfulness. Quirkiness. Fun. Colour. Warmth." That was my take-away as well. It struck me as a monument to just how gosh-darn clever Steve Jobs and Apple are, rather than a place at which the ordinary rank-and-file would want to work.
Markoff 9y ago
yep, it looks really awful like something from 80s almost in par with commie architecture, these guys wasting money apparently never heard of Zaha Hadid and likes common, it's just massive boring circle, even Pentagon building is more original, there are only two things making this building interesting - size, Apple HQ make it ten times smaller and put there unknown company and nobody would bother to read about it

kylec 9y ago

would you rather work in the amazing Apple spaceship in the suburbs, or a normal office building in a city-center? I would rather work in any building in the suburbs than any building in a city center. I love being able to get in my car and arrive at work in 10 minutes. Very few public transportation systems can beat that. It also means that I can live in an area where I can drive to and park at restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Live is easier with a car in a suburban area is easier than without one in an urban area.

linkregister 9y ago
Trick question: unless you were already a multi-millionaire you wouldn't be able to drive to the Apple spaceship in under 45 minutes.
- kylec 9y ago
  This is completely untrue. I am most certainly not a multi-millionare and, according to Google Maps, I can drive from my apartment to Apple Park in 13 minutes. I can also get to eBay in 10 and Netflix in 11.

Markoff 9y ago

beautiful building? meh, it's just extremely boring massive ring designed by some megalomaniac without any imagination, it's shame since Apple products have usually decent design but this is shameful mediocrity this is beautiful building which looks cool and like actual 2017, not that Apple thing which looks like something from 80s http://www.archdaily.com/778933/harbin-opera-house-mad-architects http://www.archdaily.com/778933/harbin-opera-house-mad-archi... http://www.architectureartdesigns.com/breathtaking-harbin-opera-house-china-mad-architects/ http://www.architectureartdesigns.com/breathtaking-harbin-op...

valuearb 9y ago
The Harbin looks incredibly wasteful of space.
- Markoff 9y ago
  beautiful building, that's what i was responding to this might be efficient but it's extremely boring not worth articles