Google's grand designs for a new complex have been upgraded since we saw them last. Its still-in-planning campus (right next to the Googleplex), has benefitted from new renders, revealed in part of the company's planning application to local official...
Apple's new 2.8 million square foot California HQ hasn't even been built yet, but already the "spaceship" campus has achieved iconic status. Tim Cook and 12,000 other employees hope to move in late next year, but that won't be the end of the compan...
Bringing its proposed campus into the world hasn't exactly been smooth sailing for Apple, excess funds or no, but the company's still focused on all the good the UFO-like structure will bring to its beloved Cupertino. According to a newly released Economic Impact Report, the new buildings will bring with them 7,400 Apple employees to Cupertino, boosting the company's total employment number up to 24,000 in that city. With the higher number comes a big bump in base salary for the company, moving from $2 billion in 2012 to more than $2.9 billion when the campus is completed. And building such a structure is no small task, of course -- the three-year job is expect to create 9,200 full-time "high quality, high wage" construction jobs.
The company also outlined plans to fund Cupertino public improvement projects in excess of $66 million -- a number that includes $50.2 million in road, landscape and utility improvements. $35 million a year, meanwhile, is set to fund Apple's alternative commute program, according to the report.
Source: Economic Impact Report [PDF]
You can take Amazon out of the jungle, but it'll just create one elsewhere -- at least that's what the company is planning for its inner-city Seattle office complex. A tweaked proposal for Amazon's three-block development, named "Rufus 2.0," was run by Seattle's Design Review Board yesterday, and it now includes a huge biodome structure with the notion that a "plant-rich environment has many positive qualities that are not often found in a typical office setting." It's five floors feature places to get work done, "dining, meeting and lounge spaces," a pair of shops serving the general public and, of course, lots of plants and trees. We've included a few more renders of the multi-bubble glass house after the break, and you'll find even more eye-candy in the source PDF. Forget the platform wars -- the competition for the coolest next-gen campus is on.
Filed under: Misc, Alt, Amazon
Via: GeekWire
Source: Seattle.gov (PDF)
Even with $145 billion in its back pocket, Apple isn't above a little cost-saving. Following rumors that its new campus was $2 billion over budget, the company has revised its plans for the facility. While the UFO-style HQ is untouched, a secondary complex that was to be built along North Tantau Ave. has been pushed back to phase two -- which means it'll begin construction in 2016, just after people start working in the spaceship.
Filed under: Apple
Via: MacRumors
Source: Apple (.PDF)
Seems as if building new, fancy properties is quickly becoming the norm within the tech sector. Following in both Apple and Google's spacious footsteps, Facebook too will be looking to amplify its California-based headquarters -- and now it's received the OK from Menlo Park authorities to commence turning Frank Gehry's design vision into a reality. The second campus itself is set to boast nearly 434,000 square feet in total and be built across 22 acres, which will be plenty of space to house anything from a rooftop park to an underground tunnel which leads to Facebook's existent abode. As for city council members, they seem to be rather pleased by Zuck's proposed construction, with one Kirsten Keith expressing how she "feels very lucky that we'll have a Frank Gehry building here." Well then, cheers all around.
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Facebook
Via: Sky News
Source: Mercury News
Usually when we get a peek at Google's Mountain View home it's to gawk at the latest Android-related statue but a Vanity Fair article posted today showed the company's future HQ plans. After initiating plans for a new structure next to the existing Googleplex and then abandoning them last year, it's opting for a new facility designed by Seattle firm NBBJ (which also created offices for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) in another area of the city. Planned to open as soon as 2015 -- potentially ahead of Apple's halo-shaped new digs -- it's called Bay View and consists of nine buildings connected by bridges over 42 acres.
According to Google it's designed for many workers to operate just on natural light, and avail themselves of the many cafes and green roofs. Quoted in the article is civil engineer David Radcliffe, who claims that employees will never be more than a two and a half minute walk away from each other, which, along with the bent floorplan of each building, is intended to create opportunities for innovation through "casual collisions". These are just some of the tidbits included in the article waiting beyond the source link, but we're still trying to figure out where they hid parking spots for all the self-driving cars.
[Image credit: NBBJ]
Source: Vanity Fair, LA Times
Well, someone had to offer a counterpart to the giant donut. NVIDIA has decided that its ongoing success in 3D graphics and mobile processors merits a suitably geometric new headquarters, so it's upping the stakes among oddly-shaped offices: it's planning to construct a triangular pair of buildings a stone's throw away from its existing Santa Clara campus. Like its upcoming parallel at the Fruit Company, the NVIDIA facility will focus on both eco-friendly design and wide open spaces that, officially, are meant to reflect the company's loves of art, collaboration and science. Of course, the Tegra creator is quick to admit that it really needs the buildings to accommodate its growing staff count -- and we imagine that "make it look cool" was also part of the proposal. NVIDIA hasn't said just when the new headquarters will be ready, although it will have to make up for lost time if it wants to have Silicon Valley's star attraction.
Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, NVIDIA
Source: NVIDIA