Apple

The Apple Park 'spaceship' campus gets priced among the world’s most expensive buildings

by Daniel Petrov / Jul 15, 2019, 2:25 AM

The Apple Park 'spaceship' campus gets priced among the world’s most expensive buildings

Back in 2011, with just a few hours warning, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs appeared in front of the Cupertino City Council to pitch the architectural design of Apple's new stomping grounds.

The renders revealed a futuristic circular building, at the same time reminiscing a Roman arena (without the gladiator pit). Steve Jobs himself acknowledged it looks a bit like a spaceship.

The arenalike structure was four stories high, and taking 180 acres of property that Apple has been buying since 2006 north of Interstate 280, mostly from Hewlett-Packard. The new headquarters was supposed to house 12,000 employees, and had been designed by the famous architect Sir Norman Foster. The windows themselves are all curved, shaping the building as a dome, and Steve Jobs defended the project in front of the Council with the following:

I think we do have a shot at building the best office building in the world. I really do think architecture students will come here to see this. I think it can be that good.

Steve Jobs being Steve Jobs, he went and got involved at such a granular level even appearing in front of the small City Council of Cupertino because he viewed what will later be called Apple Park as an integral part of the company's product design that will be showcased all the time before employees, guests and the world during launch keynotes.

Fast forward to today, and the Apple Park "spaceship" campus is all but complete, and Tim Cook has set up tributes to Steve Jobs everywhere. It's been quite an arduous undertaking but the Apple design team has also been intimately involved in the process, and we've already had quite a few high profile events set there, including a Lady Gaga concert.

They say you can't put a price tag on genius, but one David Ginsborg, deputy assessor for Santa Clara county, managed to do just that. He ran the numbers, and deduced the total worth of the Apple Park headquarters to come up to the eye-watering $4.17 billion. That's a bit less than the previously rumored $5 billion price tag to complete, but it's been two years after the grand opening, too.

This, of course, includes everything, from the garden hoses to the computer equipment, but the grand total still ranks Apple's new "spaceship" Park headwuarters among the world's most expensive buildings, according to the Wikipedia entry.

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14 Comments

1. terhesg

Posts: 14; Member since: Dec 09, 2016

That's why we need to pay $1249 for an iPhone Xs Max which costs $443 for Apple...

posted on Jul 15, 2019, 2:27 AM 9

3. iloveapps

Posts: 855; Member since: Mar 21, 2019

That is why apple is a premium company and not a cheap sammy.

posted on Jul 15, 2019, 4:35 AM 2

7. Vancetastic

Posts: 1103; Member since: May 17, 2017

Because they overcharge? Weird comment.

posted on Jul 15, 2019, 10:06 AM 3

9. oldskool50

Posts: 1323; Member since: Mar 29, 2019

Really? Well Samsung is the company that designed and built the world tallest building...the Burg Khalifa. And at $1.5B for it total construction costs, I would argue that it is a much better achievement of technology and physics than the Apple Park. Apple Park also does have some really cool technologies inside and I am sure Appel spared no expense. But when it comes to the resulst of what you get for the cost, a fancy 2000Ft tall builidng looks for an away better than a ring that sits on the ground. I think Apple Park and what I saw of the videos from inside are amazing. But I've been inside the khalifa and I can tell you it is far and away more breath-taking than anything you will ever experience. In fact the only thing I can think of that is even more awesome, is flying without an airplane.

posted on Jul 15, 2019, 2:13 PM 2

11. iushnt

Posts: 3086; Member since: Feb 06, 2013

Don’t get triggered by a kid

posted on Jul 15, 2019, 9:22 PM 1

13. jacky899

Posts: 430; Member since: May 16, 2017

Actually it was designed by SOM not Samsung.

posted on Jul 16, 2019, 12:06 AM 0

12. wickedwilly

Posts: 667; Member since: Sep 19, 2018

Apple is cheap, skimp on components, make the devices expensive or impossible to repair and charge higher prices. Sammy's Phones come fully loaded, built just as well, if not better and are less expensive to repair.