Wired
I was in San Francisco recently and used the Pisuerga to go through Valladolid, and as they said, I decided to put a stop to my travel desires, photograph as many locations as possible, and set foot on Cupertino, the location of Apple’s headquarters, or else How is that possible, look at that magnificent ring called Apple Park.
I’ll tell you about my experience, and in turn I’ll remind you that as soon as we set foot in Spain, we discuss it at length on our weekly podcast News iPhone.
Apple Park, a Steve Jobs dream
In July 2017, the works are completed and selected employees will be part of an integrated team within Apple Park, a large circular warehouse of approximately 260.000 square meters, including offices and laboratories for more than 12.000 employees. In fact, the project was started by the late Steve Jobs, who was unable to see one of his most brilliant works completed. He personally addressed Norman Foster’s team (the architects of Apple Park) and laid the foundation for his headquarters, Apple’s largest and dream headquarters in its birthplace.
What else? The interior of Apple Park is run by Jony Ive, one of Steve Jobs’ right-hand men who until recently was the head of the most revolutionary design in Apple’s history until this new era under Tim Cook. , bringing so many smiles to investors.
The location of Apple Park also coincides with the location of Hewlett Packard’s (friend of HP) Advanced Products headquarters, which was in ruins when the Apple Park mega-project began in 2014. To make this spaceship, Apple needed about 6 kilometers of glass, with views outside, and of course the huge inner garden it has. This was made of fruit trees at the behest of Steve Jobs, who grew up near apricot fields, especially since Silicon Valley was little more than an orchard before the tech explosion.
Take a one-hour detour to visit Apple Park
Assuming Apple Park isn’t exactly on the outskirts of San Francisco, it’s about 80 kilometers from Union Square, one of the most nerve-racking places in the big city. When coupled with exhausting traffic, we found it sometimes took up to an hour to get from downtown San Francisco to the Apple Park Visitor Center in Cupertino. This is a place worth two for the discreet and I recommend making a reservation if you’ve thought about it, this might be your first disappointment.
As expected, Apple Park itself is impossible to visit, and Appel designed a hybrid Apple Store in front of Apple Park that combines a cafeteria, showroom, patio overlooking Apple Park, and a store. The Apple Park Visitor Center has a good parking area reserved for users of the store, so as a general rule, you won’t have any problems getting there or finding a parking space. My advice is that you arrive early and take the opportunity to walk around before your appointment. I took the opportunity to try and see the Apple Park mockup they displayed at one end of the store, then walked to the patio overlooking Apple Park, where I got a second disappointment.
The trees around Apple Park are huge (like everything in America…), and with INRI, Apple Park itself is on a hill. All of this combined means the huge building is invisible from the roads around it, so much so that without a browser you wouldn’t know you’re right next to Apple’s headquarters. In short, these are “disappointing” views of Apple Park from the visitor center.
At this point, we return to their enabled store area, where we can find exclusive products for that Apple Store. Generally, they have mugs, hats, and other types of souvenirs, however, the day I went you could only find T-shirts (in several sizes, as fans of the brand took one of these), shopping bags and Small plus. It’s a shame because I really wanted to get a glass. On the other hand, as expected from Apple, the prices for these souvenirs are according to the company, around 40 euros for a shirt and around 25 euros for a mug.
We decided to complete the visit according to spec, bought an Apple Watch Series 7, an iPhone 12 Pro and a few t-shirts, and I couldn’t leave there without a gift for our colleague Luis Padilla.
Is it worth a visit?
That’s something you should consider personally, especially considering the view from Apple Park is a bit disappointing, and while the coffee is good, it’s still not worth spending an hour drinking at the Apple Store, where by the way, the hand sanitizer smells like Lollipop. That one, it never hurts if you’re a fan of the brand or you’re super excited about it. Especially if we take into account that you can buy some of the details (like t-shirts, mugs, hats, etc.) that you can buy exclusive to this store, a kind of “I’ve been here” they took away the dance.
I might do it again, in fact it was something I planned so it didn’t change my travel plans, in your case you have to decide for yourself. At least I can say that I am as close to Apple HQ as the average person.