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Steve Jobs' Requirements for 'Fit and Finish' Leading to Massive Cost Overruns for Apple's New Campus
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I'm glad we have you in the forum to speak for all of the people that Apple would like to recruit.
The other wood from the tree(s) is sold to other contractors for use in other projects. Heartwood is usually the most durable portion of the tree, but is more expensive because of it.
If you have $130 Billion in the bank, spending under 4% of that on the most amazing corporate headquarters the world has ever known seems completely reasonable.
Why wouldn't Apple's headquarters have the same demands for perfection that an iPhone or MacBook has with that much money?
Why wouldn't Apple's headquarters have the same demands for perfection that an iPhone or MacBook has with that much money?
They do have the money to blow on this, and will continue to for the next several years at least. And Steve wanted it. And it will be green, iconic, and inspire the employees and visitors with the amazing build, materials, and fit and finish. Apple deserves this, after all they have accomplished. Build it.
Why do investors and shareholders and those so-called "analysts" are continuously raging against Apple wanting them to change who they are? Apple isn't like any other company. They have different values. Every other company are dying just to be like Apple. They imitate their stores, their products, their colors...even their freakin presentations.
You sound a bit short sighted Sir. The most important person for any business is the customer. NOBODY ELSE!
Environments breed imagination. If you want good products understand they don't come from multistory steal cages.
I'm all for spending the money you earn however you like, and I appreciate fine craftsmanship, but it sounds like much of the cost here arose from arbitrary requirements. I don't really care what Apple does (it's not open to the public anyway), but if I were in their position, I think I would have opted for a second smaller campus on the east coast instead of allowing the budget to balloon.
Apple is public so its cash is owned by many shareholders, not just by the executives who are shareholders. This is ultimately an issue for the board of directors. A building can foster creativity but the original target of about $3 billion should be sufficient, especially since it's not exactly in Manhattan or San Francisco.
That's a great quote, and I totally agree with it.
HOWEVER, you must at least consider that it came from a man who SOLD beauty in the form of very expensive architecture. In other words, it was self serving.
So, when a potential client said to Frank lloyd Wright, "You know, I love your design, but I just don't think I can pay that much money for it." He would respond, "If you ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it, but if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life." And then the client would say, "Okay, good point, Frank. Where do I sign?"
All of that being said, I think Apple needs to invest in the beauty in this case. The building is Steve's legacy. It's like a dying wish for the guy who created Apple, and who saved it from the brink. Show the man the proper respect and spend an extra billion or two. It would be HUGELY disappointing if they scrapped this project!
Publicity
I do understand most of the critics and to some extend even the demands of shareholders, but I think this building will be more than just an Office.
A Question:
How much has been written about buildings from Microsoft (except Bill Gates Future Home), Google (except for their purchase of the Building in Downtown Manhattan), Samsung, Yahoo, Oracle (except for private property purchases by Larry Ellison)?
Apple's new Campus is remarkable in a few ways. It integrates into the landscape. The trees surrounding it will fend off wind from its facade. The inner court yard is probably wide enough to allow light winds to flow over the top of the building to allow for a small breeze, preventing it from becoming an oven in plain sunlight.
The structure of the main building (the spaceship) appears to be a very rigid structure which is resting on hundreds of dampers, preventing it from shaking through earth quakes.
In the end Apple will have built the most modern and thought through campus complex and it will get a lot of things being written and said about it. Apple is a consumer electronics (or dare I say consumer experience) company. This breathtaking building will make it known to everyone on this planet as the company that strives for perfection, in thus planting trust in its prospect customers for its products.
Once it is complete it will be a monument for perfection, attracting architects as well as interior designers - it will be as popular as the Pyramid of Gizeh and the Taj Mahal. One could even assume that the building will rank among other man made world wonders.
So, looking at the construction cost I would assume that the premium that has to be paid for the level of perfection could as well be declared as spendings on Publicity, Public Relations, Marketing & Advertising.
Hence, I do honestly believe that it would be a mistake to cut costs to achieve minuscule savings whilst having ruined the entire work of art.
Question:
What comes to mind first when you hear the following words?
Stuttgart (could be Mercedes Benz or Porsche)
Wolfsburg (could be Volkswagen)
Munich (Oktoberfest, but still it is also home to MAN and BMW, and boy is their HQ building ugly)
Detroit (yea, could be a car maker, we'll any, but what else)
Boston (??? oh, wait, Cpt Kirk, erm, no, wait, Boston Legal)
Guggenheim (yep, there is a Museum in New York City)
Wall Street (wants to look like a Greece Temple)
The White House (no kidding)
Silverdome (Chicago)
The Spire (a giant needle pointing skywards in the centre of Dublin, Ireland)
Buckingham Palace (the Queen)
Perfect (Mayan temples and pyramids, Pyramid of Gizeh, Hadrianum, Collosseum, Diamonds, Bach)
Cupertino (erm, cup cakes ?)
Now, who could claim to have been there?
Who could claim to have been inside?
Who could claim to have worked there?
OK, fast forward (imagine Campus 2 already is complete)
Giant (apple campus 2)
Modern (apple campus 2)
Green (apple campus 2)
Perfect (apple ...)
apple, apple, apple, apple .....
Hence I think I do understand why Apple wants to build this and why Steve wanted to make it simply perfect.
Regards
I do understand most of the critics and to some extend even the demands of shareholders, but I think this building will be more than just an Office.
A Question:
How much has been written about buildings from Microsoft (except Bill Gates Future Home), Google (except for their purchase of the Building in Downtown Manhattan), Samsung, Yahoo, Oracle (except for private property purchases by Larry Ellison)?
Apple's new Campus is remarkable in a few ways. It integrates into the landscape. The trees surrounding it will fend off wind from its facade. The inner court yard is probably wide enough to allow light winds to flow over the top of the building to allow for a small breeze, preventing it from becoming an oven in plain sunlight.
The structure of the main building (the spaceship) appears to be a very rigid structure which is resting on hundreds of dampers, preventing it from shaking through earth quakes.
In the end Apple will have built the most modern and thought through campus complex and it will get a lot of things being written and said about it. Apple is a consumer electronics (or dare I say consumer experience) company. This breathtaking building will make it known to everyone on this planet as the company that strives for perfection, in thus planting trust in its prospect customers for its products.
Once it is complete it will be a monument for perfection, attracting architects as well as interior designers - it will be as popular as the Pyramid of Gizeh and the Taj Mahal. One could even assume that the building will rank among other man made world wonders.
So, looking at the construction cost I would assume that the premium that has to be paid for the level of perfection could as well be declared as spendings on Publicity, Public Relations, Marketing & Advertising.
Hence, I do honestly believe that it would be a mistake to cut costs to achieve minuscule savings whilst having ruined the entire work of art.
Question:
What comes to mind first when you hear the following words?
Stuttgart (could be Mercedes Benz or Porsche)
Wolfsburg (could be Volkswagen)
Munich (Oktoberfest, but still it is also home to MAN and BMW, and boy is their HQ building ugly)
Detroit (yea, could be a car maker, we'll any, but what else)
Boston (??? oh, wait, Cpt Kirk, erm, no, wait, Boston Legal)
Guggenheim (yep, there is a Museum in New York City)
Wall Street (wants to look like a Greece Temple)
The White House (no kidding)
Silverdome (Chicago)
The Spire (a giant needle pointing skywards in the centre of Dublin, Ireland)
Buckingham Palace (the Queen)
Perfect (Mayan temples and pyramids, Pyramid of Gizeh, Hadrianum, Collosseum, Diamonds, Bach)
Cupertino (erm, cup cakes ?)
Now, who could claim to have been there?
Who could claim to have been inside?
Who could claim to have worked there?
OK, fast forward (imagine Campus 2 already is complete)
Giant (apple campus 2)
Modern (apple campus 2)
Green (apple campus 2)
Perfect (apple ...)
apple, apple, apple, apple .....
Hence I think I do understand why Apple wants to build this and why Steve wanted to make it simply perfect.
Regards
I guess that one person isn't in construction. Pre-casting in mold is common and used all the time to improve finish quality and consistency. It's also used to improve speed and work safety which can reduce cost.
Some of the other requirement sound high but in the end the whole article reads like a disgruntled contractor who didn't get the job due to lack of skill.
Just my reading.
Who is Steve Jobs?
Why dont you ask what Warren Buffet would do. He still lives in the same house and drives the same beat up old truck. This is just a waste of money if you ask me. Who really cares about a perfect seam or wether glass is curved? I mean really? Goes to show priorities.
Why dont you ask what Warren Buffet would do. He still lives in the same house and drives the same beat up old truck. This is just a waste of money if you ask me. Who really cares about a perfect seam or wether glass is curved? I mean really? Goes to show priorities.
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I think that this news makes me like his yacht more.
I can just imagine the attention to detail he gave to the interiors, layout, electronics... everything.
I can just imagine the attention to detail he gave to the interiors, layout, electronics... everything.
LOL, burning mony on some building while the Mac Pro founders because it doesn't sell in enough volume to make development worth Apple's time and money.
They could develop and release a new Mac Pro for less than than the sidewalks for this silly building cost.
They could develop and release a new Mac Pro for less than than the sidewalks for this silly building cost.
Very true. Look this as Apple last homage to him. Money is not an issue there anyway. Plus it sets Apple to new heights such a construction.
Let others be cheap.
Umm.... that never works ....
IMO, Einhorn is wrong about this, actually.
Shareholders may be grumbling because Apple won't do a stock split or something that directly makes them a quick profit. But where's any real evidence folks are afraid Apple will blow their hoard of cash on useless purchases??
The fact they saved so much cash up in the first place shows a considerable amount of fiscal responsibility. They said, repeatedly, they wanted to do that so Apple could weather a financial downturn without running out of money, and to ensure they had cash to acquire anyone worthwhile that came along.
If they really did use billions of dollars to double everyone's salary for a year (or heck, 2 years!), what then? How would you keep those people satisfied after that when you had to cut their salaries back to previous levels? Would a sudden salary boost make everyone there suddenly more intelligent and innovative than they were before?
I'd say that such a move would be more wasteful for Apple than building a decadent HQ! At least with the building, they own the asset permanently after that.
IMO, Einhorn is wrong about this, actually.
Shareholders may be grumbling because Apple won't do a stock split or something that directly makes them a quick profit. But where's any real evidence folks are afraid Apple will blow their hoard of cash on useless purchases??
The fact they saved so much cash up in the first place shows a considerable amount of fiscal responsibility. They said, repeatedly, they wanted to do that so Apple could weather a financial downturn without running out of money, and to ensure they had cash to acquire anyone worthwhile that came along.
If they really did use billions of dollars to double everyone's salary for a year (or heck, 2 years!), what then? How would you keep those people satisfied after that when you had to cut their salaries back to previous levels? Would a sudden salary boost make everyone there suddenly more intelligent and innovative than they were before?
I'd say that such a move would be more wasteful for Apple than building a decadent HQ! At least with the building, they own the asset permanently after that.
What is the big surprise here? Jobs was a perfectionist. He demanded the utmost across the board in every one and every thing. Nothing less. Cost is not an issue. This is a man who swore he would spend every single penny in the bank to destroy Android, to right a perceived wrong. Money means nothing, Apple has so much cash it isn't even funny. And they're about to add more to the balance sheet in just a couple weeks. 5 billion would be bread crumbs. I say build it as Steve intended.
Once this spaceship is built, I bet Samsung will announce a rhombus shaped headquarters made of the highest quality plastic and particle board
It's all relative. It's only 5% of 100 billion. They have the money to spare. And it would do so much for the community and Apple. And "the choice of building materials" as you put it is why it will be a masterpiece.
If they asked the public make it or not you'd probably say no. And I'm glad Apple is not listening to the no people. The people don't want it but they ought to have it. And in years to come everyone will be happy it's build. It's a good thing for everyone.
MS didn't die when Gates left it and that buffoon Ballmer became CEO. So I don't think cook in charge is the death of Apple. Even if you hate it, think of the jobs it will create to make it. Local US jobs to help out your failing US economy. And be glad it's something not bought on debt like almost everything else is.
Some people are never satisfied.
The thing that gets me about this is that people are conflating building greAt products with building a great ... building. At some point, striving for perfection and minuscule tolerances borders on a stupid and incredibly wasteful use of cash. And I think Apple's pretty much at that point. There's absolutely no reason they can't construct a monumentally impressive building without insisting on non-standard building materials or processes. Absolutely no reason. I don't buy the argument that sacrificing precision standards on the building would mean the same for Apple's products. Apples and oranges. Doesn't even make sense to compare the two.