On Wednesday night, Apple received approval from the Cupertino Planning Commission for its new “Spaceship” campus. The company had made a presentation to the community at a public discussion on Tuesday. The plan now goes up for a vote by the City Council on October 15th, followed by a final vote scheduled for November 19th.
Just like any other Apple presentation, this one came with a slickly-produced video. Dan Whisenhunt, the company’s director of real estate and facilities, introduced a video featuring lead architect Norman Foster and others in charge of the site’s development. One gem from the film is that the site’s now infamous O-shaped structure was not the original vision. “It really grew into that born out of an intensive process,” said Foster in the video. The plans were also inspired by Stanford’s campus.
The idea was originally pitched by the late Steve Jobs back in June 2011. His final public appearance before his death four months later. The company submitted revised plans in December 2011, and by April of this year, the project was reported to be one year behind schedule, and roughly $2 billion over budget.
