For Apple enthusiasts, a visit to the Apple Park, the company's headquarters, is like witnessing a spaceship settled on Earth and participating in a dream come true. Even though the inner buildings of the Apple Park Campus are primarily accessible to employees and occasionally to the press, the Visitor Center remains open for all to enjoy.
Discovering the Apple Park Visitor Center
The Apple Park Visitor Center is located right in front of the ring, at 10600 N Tantau Avenue, Cupertino, California. It's one of the only buildings in the complex that is outside the boundaries of the Apple Park campus itself, open and accessible to everyone.
It's a large rectangle, all made of glass, with rounded corners. The ground floor is divided into three areas by partition walls that do not reach the ends of the building, so there are no internal doors and we can freely walk around the entire space.
In the first area, we find a large-scale model of the Apple Park, about 5x5 meters in size. Apparently, this was sculpted and polished by the same machines that create Apple's products. When we enter, an employee hands us an iPad with an app already prepared to interact with the model and to view the Apple Park in augmented reality.
The app allows us to change between different types of visualization. We can see the map itself and zoom in on different areas, we can change the time of the day and see the Apple Park at night, or even lift the roof to see a sketch of the interior layout. We can also see how the campus uses solar energy —the significance of the solar roof on the main building and the parking building becomes apparent— and how it uses air, as the triple fin shape of the facade allows for efficient ventilation and, along with the heat of the sun, means that Apple Park only needs to turn on the heating for 3 or 4 months a year.
The second area of the Visitor Center is a unique and quite large Apple Store. This offers exclusive products that we cannot find in any other store in the world, such as bags, caps, and T-shirts with the logo or the image of the Apple Park in different colors and designs. It also has a large screen for live streaming of the Keynotes.
Finally, in the third area, we find a cafeteria equivalent to "Caffè Macs", the free restaurant for employees at Apple Park. Here, for example, the menu is presented on iPads.
The staircase and elevator allow us to go down to the restrooms or up to the upper terrace, provided with tables, where there is a very good view of the campus. The staircase is particularly striking. In line with the building's design style, it is crafted from a single block of white marble. The design and structure of the handrail harmoniously blend into it, forming an elegant and fluid unibody piece.
The entire Apple Park is designed with accessibility in mind, including the Visitor Center. There are no steps, everything is flush with the ground, and the spaces are wide and clear to facilitate free and autonomous movement for all people, including those with special needs.
The ring or Spaceship can be seen practically from any point around the area, but the best panoramic view is from the upper terrace, from where we can also get a glimpse of the Steve Jobs Theater. The closest contact, however, is to the north; by following the same Tantau Avenue, we can reach one of its main entrances.
The design and architecture of the Apple Park Visitor Center is yet another reflection of the aesthetics, beauty, and lightness that Apple allows us to enjoy in everything it creates. A demonstration of how the company is guided by an invisible thread that undoubtedly takes us back to the visionary ideals of Steve Jobs.
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