The budget allocated by Apple to build a new campus for the company, a ring-shaped building compared by Steve Jobs with a spaceship, rose to $5 billion from less than $3 billion in 2011, according to sources close to the project.
Steve Jobs presented the project in June 2011, four months before he died, to the City Council in Cupertino, California, the place for the current headquarters of Apple.
The 4-storey campus, surrounded by 6,000 trees should be big enough for 12,000 employees with all necessary facilities. “It’s a little like a spaceship We have a shot at building the best office building in the world. I really do think that architecture students will come here to see it,” Jobs said at the meeting with the local council.
With an area of over 2.8 million square feet (260,000 square meters), a third of the Pentagon size (620,000 square meters), Apple’s new headquarters would be surrounded, according to the project, by 176 acres of parkland. Access roads and parking lots would be exclusively underground.
The campus will have many cafeterias, the biggest one will have a capacity of 3,000 people. Jobs talked at the presentation of the project, about the curved glass exterior walls. For construction, Apple will import from Germany curved glass panels with a height of over 40 feet.
“There isn’t a straight piece of glass on the whole building. As you know, if you build things, this isn’t the cheapest way to build them,” said the former leader of Apple at the time.
Since 2011, when the project was initially presented, Apple’s budget for the Campus rose to nearly $5 billion from less than $3 billion, said sources.
Apple headquarters will cost more than the new World Trade Center complex in New York, an investment of $3.9 billion. The cost per square foot of $1,500 would be three times higher than for most tower buildings in the U.S..
Jobs hoped to start work on the new Campus in 2012, with its official opening in 2015. A source close to the project says that Apple will begin in June to demolish 26 buildings currently in the area. Contacted by Bloomberg, Apple representatives declined to comment.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, said in February that the inauguration date was delayed until 2016.
Sources close to the situation say Apple has delayed the project to cut the cost by $1 billion before starting work. Such large projects often exceed budget, but Apple has cash reserves of $137 billion.
Demolition and excavation of land before the start of the works will last 6 months, requiring a continuous convoy of trucks.
The lead architect is Foster & Partners and the general contractor is a joint venture between DPR Construction and Skanska USA Building. Apple has not yet signed contracts with other smaller firms involved in the project – sealed bids will be submitted by May.
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