CUPERTINO — The spaceship isn’t ready for liftoff just yet, but Apple’s futuristic headquarters is starting to take shape.
The construction has not let up during the holiday season, with crews on site Christmas Eve. And Apple seems to be on track to finish the project in late 2016, as planned, said Justin Reginato, a professor of construction management at Cal State Sacramento, judging by a recent video posted by a technology blog.
“They’re making great headway out there,” he said.
The video, posted this week by AppleInsider, shows that a three-story parking structure is sprouting up and a theater and the main office building are also taking shape.
“That’s how you know they’re in a big hurry, because normally you would stage each of those separately,” said Reginato.
Apple broke ground on the Cupertino site last year, shortly after securing the Cupertino City Council’s blessing. Dreamed up by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the project will convert the husk of Hewlett-Packard’s old campus from a site that is 80 percent asphalt and cement to one that is 80 percent parkland and open space. Jobs boasted that the campus’s centerpiece, a shimmering circular building frequently compared to a spaceship, would not contain a straight piece of glass.
To be sure, the project is in its early days. Based on the video, Reginato said construction workers still appear to be doing site work, which prepares the land.
Reginato said Apple was wise to split the project among a few general contractors, making it easier for the companies to divide and conquer their territory. Pointing to construction projects spearheaded by Facebook and Google, Reginato said Silicon Valley companies have a track record of making ambitious designs a reality in short order.
“Because they have the financial wherewithal, and they are more motivated by saving time rather than saving money, they hire contractors to get done on time — and they do,” he said.
Apple shows every sign of needing the new space. Apple houses about 3,000 employees at its current headquarters in Cupertino, located at One Infinite Loop, and it is also leasing office space in Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, this newspaper reported earlier this year. It eventually hopes to hold about 13,000 employees at the new campus, according to a report about the company’s economic impact prepared by Keyser Marston Associates in 2013.
City Councilman Gilbert Wong said he got a bird’s-eye view of Apple’s new campus about six months ago, when he flew over the site in a helicopter with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. He was impressed by the progress the company has made in the interim.
“You can see that Apple has the resources to build it rapidly,” he said. “They’re committed.”
Contact Julia Love at 408-920-5536 or follow her at Twitter.com/byJuliaLove.
