Apple's proposed spaceship-shaped headquarters will be the company's new home in three years. The singular design was the brainchild of the late head of the company, Steve Jobs.
Apple has had the spaceship headquarters model in mind for some years, but it won't be until 2016 that the company's executives and employees will be able to move in.
CNET reports that CEO Tim Cook made the announcement on Wednesday, Feb. 27 as part of Apple's annual shareholders meeting. Cook noted that Apple is currently working with city officials in Cupertino, Calif. to approve the project, with the hope of breaking ground some time later this year.
It was in June 2011, months before his untimely death, that Jobs first went before the Cupertino City Council to propose his space-ship Apple headquarters idea.
"Apple is growing like a weed," Jobs told the city council. "It's clear we need to build a new campus."
According to All Things D, Apple purchased the 98-acre property for its prospective headquarters (at 19091 Pruneridge Avenue) from Hewlett-Packard in 2010. The 98 acres — located next to the 50 acres of land Apple had already acquired in 2006 — was valued at the time at $300 million.
"It's a bit like a spaceship landed," Jobs said in talking about the facility's rather original architectural design. "There's not a straight piece of glass in this building — it's all curved," he continued. "We know how to build the biggest pieces of glass for architectural use."
At the time Jobs first proposed to the space to the Cupertino City Council, the company wanted to boost its office occupancy from 2,800 to 12,000 employees. Nearly two years later, that number has jumped to 14,200.
The headquarters will allegedly be "80 percent landscape," according to Apple, with more than 7,000 trees on the property.
CNET continues that the 2016 completion date is a little behind the original deadline of 2015.
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