This week, Apple unveiled a suite of new product models including the highly anticipated iPhone 16, but for the architecture fan, the reveal of its newest building—Apple Park Observatory—may have stolen the show.
Located in Apple Park, the company’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California, the newest structure is built into the outer meadows of the campus. Foster & Partners conceived the early design concept, which was developed and refined by Apple’s Global Architecture & Design team and Gensler. “When we built Apple Park, we wanted the entire campus to be seamlessly integrated into the landscape, and this building follows that same approach,” John De Maio, Apple global head of design (real estate and development), told Dezeen.
A subterranean structure, the building is defined by an oval-shaped window, peeking out from a densely planted hill. The design details mirrors both the sinuous curves of the natural landscape and the campus’s main building, a 2.8 million square foot, ring-shaped structure clad in the world’s largest panels of curved glass. Built from natural stone, terrazzo, and wood, the material palette references another building on campus, the Steve Jobs Theater, which was completed in 2017. “It’s a design that complements both the landscape and its neighboring buildings on campus,” De Maio added.
