PIRAMIDE EN CALIFORNIA-NEXO SILICON VALLEY/APPLE - Secreto Masonico

There's finally an explanation for the giant dirt pyramid on Apple's new campus

Feb. 17, 2016, 2:16 PM

Youtube/Duncan SinfieldAs Apple's $5 billion "spaceship" campus in Cupertino, California, has started to take shape, an enormous pyramid of dirt has risen beside it.

Now we know why: None of the dirt excavated to situate Apple's new offices will be removed from the 175-acre campus.

Instead, all of the earth Apple dug up will become part of the building's landscaping, which will eventually resemble a natural forest.

"Hard to know which is more beautiful, the building or that pile of dirt," CEO Tim Cook told Vogue.

Apple's 12,000-person campus is expected to be completed this year. Major landscaping — building the dirt pyramid — was completed in 2014. Employees are expected to move in to their new offices in early 2017.

The process of building the campus started in 2009, and former CEO Steve Jobs said that Apple had "a shot at building the best office building in the world." Apple partnered with architect Norman Foster to design the building, which heavily features curved glass in the design — over 4 miles, according to Foster.

But as important as the building was to Jobs, so was the campus' larger landscape. When finished, it will be covered with natural and native grasses and trees.

Here's another look at the giant dirt pile:

Youtube/Duncan Sinfield

Here's what Apple's campus will look like when it's finished, according to design renders:

City of Cupertino

https://www.businessinsider.com/we-now-know-why-theres-a-giant-dirt-pyramid-on-apples-new-campus-2016-2

If you're someone who has been following the construction progress on Apple's new $5 billion "spaceship" campus in Cupertino, California, you've likely spied the towering pyramid of earth looming directly behind the massive circular structure.

Unlike other construction projects that might haul this clean fill away, Apple has big plans for the valuable soil. According to CEO Tim Cook, the massive pyramid will slowly be distributed around the 175-acre campus to help nourish a forest of more than 7,000 trees.

"Hard to know which is more beautiful, the building or that pile of dirt," Cook recently told Vogue during a tour of the site.

When the late Steve Jobs first commissioned the design for the campus in 2009, he was adamant about making green space a priority. To that end, roughly 80 percent of the campus will feature open, natural spaces. Before demolishing the old Hewlett-Packard site, Apple also dug up and preserved more than 1,000 mature trees for re-planting.

A before and after of Apple's new 175-acre campus. About 80 percent of the property will be left natural and open. (Photo: Apple)

"It's pretty ambitious," Dave Muffly, a full-time arborist hired by Apple to head its tree landscaping, told the LA Times. "Some of these development projects, they don't see the value of transplanting these larger trees. They only see the dollars and say, 'Oh my goodness, it’s so expensive.' But some people recognize that if you bring in old trees, that as soon as my project opens, I'm going to have a landscape that is already pretty established."

Trees slated for the new campus include oak trees, plums, cherries, persimmons, and yes, apples. At last count, 243 apple trees will be featured inside the courtyard of the new Apple HQ. Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Pink Lady, Sierra Beauty and seven other varieties will be available to the more 14,000 employees expected to work there.

In addition to the natural beauty of the campus, Apple is also working to make the campus one of the most sustainable in the world. About 90 percent of the materials from the demolished Hewlett-Packard buildings will be used in its construction, including the recycling of old cement. Instead of being mulched or tossed, trees not slated to be re-planted were sent to a lumber mill. Energy to power the site, including the 770,000-square foot circular building, will come from on-site, 100-percent renewable sources.

“We have a shot,” Steve Jobs said in 2011, “at building the best office building in the world."

Apple's new campus is expected to open early next year.