The Romance of Steve Jobs
There is something of the romantic about Steve Jobs. Something of the poet.
That's because there always seems to be a symmetry to whatever he does. A purpose. A connection.
Whether it's the look, feel and ease of new products and services he presents in his World Wide Developer Conference keynote presentations or a retail experience that sets new trends - and profits - there's a simplicity and directness to how he does what he does.
All of which was very much on view when he made a presentation to the Cupertino City Council in California regarding the new campus Apple wants to establish to house 12,000 employees in the city in which it was founded.
Jobs heads a company he describes as "growing like a weed." From the garage it started in to a "little office park" to the campus on Infinity Loop, Apple continues to grow far faster than its current accommodations.
At the moment, the company has 2,600 employees at its main campus with over 9,000 more spread throughout Cupertino in an ever-widening radius where it is all the more difficult for people to work together.
The answer is the "spaceship" - the circular building designed to hold 12,000 employees in one facility.
But that won't be all. The new campus will have a dedicated R&D and testing center, a cafe that serves 3,000 at a time, a fitness center, an auditorium that will be larger than the quarters used for the WWDC at San Francisco's Moscone Center (which he foreshadowed in his keynote) and its own independent energy generating plant so that it uses the grid as backup.
The main building, itself, is a result of the work of some of what Jobs refers to as the best architects in the world along with all the building know-how the company has gained from its retail operations.
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