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Progress on Apple Campus 2 Continues as Walls Go Up

snberk103 said:
When we had our home built, I was astonished when the contractor made us decide on the flooring options while he was building the forms for the foundation walls. He was going to pour the foundation to within 1/8 of an inch. And whether we choose the engineered or natural wood floor made that much difference.

Since this is Job's dream, I wouldn't be at all surprised if 1/8 inch is the minimal tolerance they want. I have no idea how close to perfectly level you can get on building that size.
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1/8" tolerance over the length of a house is around 4-6" over the length of this building.

regardless, they're not pouring floors yet and they're definitely not going to pour one giant flat slab then build off it.. the foundation for something this size has to be able to move.

they'll put in a bunch of pilings deep into the ground and these don't need to be, nor can they be (in all practicality) exact.. the mechanical connection system to the actual foundation grade/beams lets you move a beam up/down 6 or so inches to get within tolerance of the actual structure — or, this is where stevie's 1/8 thing would come into play.. (and i image this building will have a pretty sweet connection system due to it being in an earthquake zone.. probably some hi-tech bearing/bushing system under there and in essence, the building will be floating above the foundation).


anyway, steve jobs didn't do large scale construction.. for him to say "i want everything within an 1/8 across the site" makes not much sense.. i'm pretty sure if he did say that then he's talking about something other than this phase of construction.. (as in— the ground itself probably moves more than 1/8" up/down between the cool morning and mid-afternoon heat)
 
JesperA said:
There is a pretty good view of the dampers/earthquake/structure thingy in the drawings:

http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/apple-campus-2_floor-plan_part-one_page_14.png
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apple-campus-2_floor-plan_part-one_page_14.png


Good stuff, interesting to see this drawing. On a related note, I've often wondered how the Apple Retail stores deal with so much glass in areas with earthquake activity.
 
Mac rumor writers while have their work cut out if we get a new article when a "small wall" goes up. Next it'll be "New Apple HQ, blade of grass grows", with hourly photos of said blade growing.
 
captain kaos said:
Mac rumor writers while have their work cut out if we get a new article when a "small wall" goes up. Next it'll be "New Apple HQ, blade of grass grows", with hourly photos of said blade growing.
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Yeah, this is a totally useless and not interesting article that no one would read let alone actually discuss...oh, wait... :rolleyes:
 
So, the first space ship wasn't large enough ? Why didn't Apple think about this before planning on the first one ?

Where will this one go ? It's like the NASA space station all over again..

Apple just likes round things..
 
Tech198 said:
So, the first space ship wasn't large enough ? Why didn't Apple think about this before planning on the first one ?
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Dude, what are you talking about? This is the only "spaceship" that Apple have planned. Or which one is the "first space ship" you are referring to?
 
kemal said:
"Laserbeams"

They should be able to get it to 1/8". Earlier it was reported that SJ wanted interior parts fitted to 1/32". Expect some stuck doors.
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just a quick fwiw on tolerances.. it doesn't mean 1/32" is the maximum gap allowed between say, a door and it's jamb..

it means everything must be built within 1/32" of the design.. so a door would be drawn/designed with 1/4" space then the actual gap when measured on site must fall within 7/32 & 9/32" or else it's out of tolerance.

(in other words- building to a 1/32" tolerance on an interior would mean everything appears absolutely straight (when called for) and/or perfect to your eye.. no wavy gravy walls/ weird gaps in trim/ funky humps/ etc.. that said, it's pretty much impossible to do interiors at 1/32".. that's nearing fine furniture tolerances.. an 1/8 is more like it and if everything fell within that, it would be a highly skilled crew that pulled it off.)
 
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Alien Mothership Invasion

NachoGrande said:
wow those homes are so close. I'd be kinda bent about that.
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Uhmmm... They should have sold the property to Apple as they were the last hold out from looking at aerial maps as they are on remaining corner of campus site.

----------

Sir Norman Foster how door you number all the rooms in circular infinite loop building?
 
Zandros said:
So, are there any builders here who want to shed light on how you make the foundation level for such a large building, and what are the tolerances usually?
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We put up a 100,000 sq.ft. warehouse a few years back. Tolerance was speced at + or - 1/8". The storage rack installer let us know afterword that it was built to + or - 1/16". Although they brought in pallets of shims, not a single shim was used in the rack assembly.
 
Zandros said:
So, are there any builders here who want to shed light on how you make the foundation level for such a large building, and what are the tolerances usually?
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Here's another question... after first moderate earthquake, is the building going to be within those tight tolerances? That is... will the earth settle back down exactly flat again? With a building that covers that much area, even a little shifting of the earth will be transmitted to the building.

I get that the building isn't 'damaged' - that the foundations system is designed to shift and slide to accommodate the motion during the earthquake... but what happens to the tolerances if one corner of the ground the building is standing on lifts (for example) a fraction of an inch?

So much for perfectly flat... it would drive Jobs nuts, I would guess....
 
It's most interesting to see how much of the campus will be underground. Over 2/3rds of the square footage of the main building will be underground, extending to twice the saucer's diameter. What we don't see yet is the excavation for the huge auditorium which will be underground between the main saucer building and the parking lots to the south. The auditorium will appear as a slight bump in the wood park between the saucer and the parking lot.

We will likely never see anyone outside since most everything will be below grade. Park your car, take the elevator down to the basement or sub-basement, and take the moving sidewalk to your office in the main building.

Truly amazing!
 
snberk103 said:
Here's another question... after first moderate earthquake, is the building going to be within those tight tolerances? That is... will the earth settle back down exactly flat again? With a building that covers that much area, even a little shifting of the earth will be transmitted to the building.
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the main goal when dealing with an earthquake is preventing structural failure / collapse.. if a section needs replaced/repaired/readjusted after a quake, it will be possible to do but it's going to take one hell of an earthquake to require something like that.

I get that the building isn't 'damaged' - that the foundations system is designed to shift and slide to accommodate the motion during the earthquake... but what happens to the tolerances if one corner of the ground the building is standing on lifts (for example) a fraction of an inch?

So much for perfectly flat... it would drive Jobs nuts, I would guess....
Click to expand...

no it wouldn't.. he wouldn't even know if one end of the building moved a fraction of an inch (?!) .. nobody would (without the use of some serious survey equipment)

a fraction of an inch is nothing.. imagine the site were perfectly level.. you could move one side up 25feet and it's still going to appear perfectly flat.. 25' rise over the length of that site (assuming it's around 1500' long) is a 1º pitch.. you can't feel 1º.. as in, any slab requiring water runoff (patios/outdoor sport courts/parking lots/etc) are steeper than 1º.
 
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The real deal...

Real purpose behind the campus revealed...
 

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