Apple Spaceship HQ In Dramatic Artist Renderings [PHOTOS]

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We’ve known for some time that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is planning a monstrous new headquarters which looks like a spaceship. However, details and images have been pretty scarce, at least until Wired came out with these new artist renderings from Cupertino, Calif.’s municipal archive.

More than 20 new renderings of Apple’s HQ

To say that the spacious structure looks like a spaceship is really an understatement. Wired uncovered 24 new artist renderings. The entrance looks like a spectacular space port, and there’s a shiny glass pavilion offering entrance into Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s underground auditorium.  Apple Campus 2, as it’s called, will sit on a site where Compaq and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) were once located. Some employees will enter the site through a tunnel which leads to an underground parking garage.

Others will park in the above-ground garage, which will have plenty of greenery and solar panels. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also running shuttle buses through the Bay Area, which will drop passengers off at the Corporate Transit Center. Although the spaceship headquarters is obviously going to be the most eye-catching part of the campus, there will also be a cluster of buildings set apart to be used for research and development.

Apple looks out for the environment

In Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s presentation to officials in Cupertino, the company said it would be “one of the most environmentally sustainable projects on this scale anywhere in the world.” The company plans for the entire operation to run on renewable energy, mostly through solar power generated by massive photovoltaic solar panels and on-site fuel cell plants.

The ventilation and cooling system will be designed in such a way that for 70% of the year, the building won’t need to use air conditioning. Also, you can bet there will be plenty of foliage and green plants on the campus since Apple employs a full time senior arborist.

Apple seeks to promote collaboration

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has said that the circular floor plan is designed to promote greater collaboration among its employees. The walkways will be located in the outer and inner rims of each floor of the “spaceship.” Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said recently that they found rectangular or square-shaped buildings greater than four stories inhibited collaboration and that they wanted the new headquarters to be a “walkable” building.

I could tell you more about what the images look like, but honestly, you’ve got to see them for yourself. If a picture is really worth a thousand words, I doubt you’d want to read 24,000 words on these renderings when you could just let your own eyes take them in.

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