From the Editor

To Boldly Go …

Apple retail stores, such as its flagship store in New York, are known and recognized worldwide for their innovative use of glass. Now, with plans for a future headquarters campus, Apple co-founder and chief executive officer Steve Jobs is taking the company’s innovative approach toward architecture in a different direction.

In early June during a City Council meeting of the City of Cupertino, Calif., Jobs presented plans for Apple’s new campus—plans that have caught the eye and attention of many for their spaceship-like aesthetics.

Jobs explained during his presentation that Apple is in need of a new campus to augment the company’s growth and the plans he was presenting would allow the company to remain in Cupertino. Owning a total of about 180 acres, the new campus design would bring 12,000 people “under one roof.”

“We’ve hired great architects, some of the best in the world,” Jobs said.

Some news reports have cited United Kingdom-based Foster and Partners as the architect, though the firm declined to confirm that it had indeed been selected for the project.

But still, in his presentation about the new campus, Jobs said it was “pretty amazing, like a spaceship.”

The circular design is curved all the way around and “there’s not a straight piece of glass on the building,” Jobs said, noting that with their “experience in making retail buildings all over the world … [they] know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use and we want to make the glass specifically for this building curved all the way around … and it’s pretty cool.”

Though Jobs may say the plans are pretty cool, the big question is really, what do architects and glass companies think of the plans? Do you agree with Jobs? Is the idea really all that unique? Send me an email at erogers@glass.com to share your views.

Architects' Guide to Glass & Metal
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