Structural glass designs, like the visitor center, made by seele, dominate the impression of the Apple Park in Cupertino.

Apple Park Visitor Center & Reception Buildings, Cupertino, USA

882sqm

glazing for the Visitor Center with  

56sqm

curved glass panes  

41,5sqm

flat panes of glass for the Reception Buildings with  

9,6sqm

curved glass panes

structural glass designs by seele dominate the first impression of Apple Park

Apple Park in Cupertino is the new headquarters of Apple in California’s Silicon Valley. seele provided various design and construction services for this mammoth project, e.g. the sliding façade elements for the staff restaurant, the Visitor Center and the two reception buildings. It was primarily the structural glass designs with their flat and curved panes that benefited from seele’s innovative technologies and intricate design principles. As Apple Park is situated in a seismic zone and the panes of glass, owing to their size, are subjected to extreme movements, the structural engineering skills and expertise of seele were particularly in demand.

Visitor Center

Apple Park is not open to visitors, but they can gain an impression and experience the Apple brand in the Visitor Center. Inside the building there is a room containing a model of Apple Park, an Apple Store and a café with a large rooftop terrace. This building is defined by the structural glass, which requires no further structural members. The enclosing façade consists of flat and curved panes up to 6m high and 3m wide. On plan the outline of this building, with its curved panes modelled on Bézier curves, resembles that of an iPhone. The panes themselves are connected together with structural glazing adhesive and fixed to stainless steel members at top and bottom.

  • seele was also contracted to supply side-hung doors in portal frames made from clad stainless steel, and also moving façade elements, the so-called pivot-operated panels. These are 6m high with a solid bronze frame. Each door rotates about a central vertical pivot and can be opened at 90° to the façade. The drive mechanism and the software for opening the pivot-operated panels were also provided by seele.

    Reception Buildings

    Staff and business customers enter Apple Park via two separate Reception Buildings – the Tantau and Wolfe Buildings. seele was appointed to carry out the design, production and construction of the glass façades. These make use of both flat and curved panes of glass and it is the latter that attract particular attention. As with the Visitor Center, it is the Bézier curves with their offset of max. 736mm that dominate the appearance of the buildings. In places the longitudinal sides consist of just one pane up to 15 m long.

All-glass construction for the Visitor Center without additional support structure
The 6m high so-called pivot-operated panels of the Visitor Center
One of the two Reception Buildings
Curved panes of glass form the corners of the glass façades to the Reception Buildings
The glass entrance doors of the Reception Buildings

Credits

Client Apple Inc.
General contractor Apple Inc.
Architect Foster + Partners
Date of completion 2017
Scope of work by seele
  • Visitor Center
    • 882sqm glazing with pane sizes up to 3 x 6m
    • 56sqm curved glass panes at the corners
    • 2 side-hung doors with portal frames up to 6m wide
    • Pivot-operated panels (each panel 5.4m high x 3m wide)
    • 2 glass boxes measuring 7.8 x 4.8 x 2.6m for the stairs providing access to the rooftop terrace
    • Several glass balustrades
  • Reception Buildings
    • approx. 41.5sqm flat panes of glass
    • approx. 9.6sqm curved panes of glass
    • 8 glass doors