Visiting Apple Park—The Visitor Center Pavilion

Continued from page 1

Going Inside and To The Roof

This view inside the visitor center shows that the building has linear circulation spaces along each long side of the building. The height of the glass walls is approximately 18-20 feet. Doors are located in at least three major spots along each long side, plus one to two locations at each end on the cafe side, which itself features large pivoting glass doors to open up space to the outside.

In this view I am standing at the Exhibition space looking past stair halls (left) sheathed in limestone, core spaces, then the large Apple Store space in the middle, then stair and core again and then at the very end, the Apple Cafe.

03 – Inside Apple Park Visitor Center.

I was impressed with the obvious weight of the big glass doors (you can see one in this view about 20 feet from where I was standing), which don’t rise up to the ceiling but nevertheless are large. They move quite easily despite their weight, and the quality of the door hardware—a huge subject of discussion during the construction of Apple Park—was extremely nice.

In the picture above I am standing at the far right of the Exhibition space. Towards the left center of that space is the physical model of Apple Park. They hand out iPads with AR technology which converts the photo of the model into a rendered, interactive 3D model.

04 – The exhibition space features a physical model of the entire Apple Park which you can explore with AR technology on iPads Apple hands out to you.

Let’s head up to the roof. The flooring is a decking material that I did not take the time to investigate. I was not that impressed, and it seemed Apple didn’t put the same degree of care into this particular material. I am unsure of the species, but it could be mahogany or even IPE. It had a weathering oil finish or some kind, and I expect it will weather gray nicely over time blending more with the colors of the building.

05 – From the roof deck visitors can simply chill out under the carbon-fiber fins that make up the pergola and gaze across the street to the main campus building in the distance.

In the image above the view of the Apple headquarters main building lies behind the large trees in the foreground. The plantings at Apple Park are impressive. In a few years, it will be interesting to see just how extensively lush Apple Park will look at feel.

A few notes. The roof material is incredibly shiny and made up of large curved panels with seams about 10 feet apart. I believe this is the same carbon fiber roof system used at the Steve Jobs Theater and several smaller pavilion type buildings throughout Apple Park as well as the Apple Michigan Store. A solid double-layer glass guardrail is the only thing that separates you from the roof panels.

next page: Stairs, Basement, and Notes About the Glass