I was at a convention this summer with 11,000+ people. That place was huge, and not at all intimate.
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Steve Jobs Theater Includes Custom-Made Rotating Elevators and Retractable Wall Hiding Demo Area
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I was at a convention this summer with 11,000+ people. That place was huge, and not at all intimate.
If you can't see how bad ass this is, if all you can do is pick and bitch:
Think Different!
Think Different!
Yes, but WWDC is a developers convention not a press event. SJT is for press events and other small corporate events. It was never intended to be a keynote venue for WWDC.
Because of a trend called Landscape Urbanism, where, among other things, landscape is used to hide urban form. It's a pretty flawed urban design theory, but unfortunately it is very trendy right now and it is being pushed very heavily from Harvard and other major players in urban theory. The whole open space system at Apple Park is totally influenced by landscape urbanism: artificial hills, planting mature trees, vast naturalized fields, etc. It's great for some purposes, but unfortunately you end up with very suburban forms that are not very walkable and are not dense enough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_urbanism
What rich people won't do with their wealth. Will it upset the gyroscopes in your Apple Watches to physically rotate 180°? But that would not appeal the Apple design sensibilities. My only surprise is that Apple did not opt to rotate the entire building rather than the elevator.
I thought so too but there’s no way the Steve Jobs Theatre cost only $14 Million. The glass and roof of the above ground portion alone cost that much, if not much more.
Theatres don't need windows (and very rarely have any). That means there is no downside to putting it underground and save the overground space for only the stuff that needs windows. This means you don't have an unsightly large windowless building and have more space for greenery and landscape.
In short, it looks better (in particular in the context of the Apple Park idea) and doesn't have downsides for the theatre function.
To quote myself:
"In 2011, when the design of Apple Park (incl. Steve Jobs Theatre) was revealed, Apple held the iPhone 4s event in its Infinite Loop Town Hall, holding about 300 people (the 5s was also revealed there, the 5 in the 750-seat Yerba Buena Center for the Arts). It's quite possible that Apple thought back then that a 1000 people auditorium would be enough for its press events (outside of WWDC).
It is also possible that they plan to have many internal events to which 1000 is a much better fit than a 3000 seat theatre."
I'm surprised there isn't an underground walkway behind the stage that goes back to the main building, so that the executives can go to and from without passing through the audience.
I think the last part is spot-on.
It's a very limited use building sitting there occupying space that would be otherwise very useful to fill with more park space that Apple obviously values greatly (rightfully so might I add).
Glassed Silver:ios
Interesting. One thing that hit me is the emergency egress. I'd like to see how they have exits set up in cases where one (or more was blocked). What is the timing requirement in California for a 1000 person emergency exit?
On the other hand, 14Mio for the whole infrastructure seems quite low: unique one-piece fiber glass roof, custom glass walls on the surface building, custom elevators, 1000 seat capacity, exhibition space with moving walls, huge back-stage and tech infrastructure...
In addition to what's already been said, being underground also makes it all the more spy-proof. Apple goes to insane lengths to keep their announcements secret at public venues, but here they can casually set up and simply lock the doors.
Landscape urbanism is a theory of urban planning arguing that the best way to organize cities is through the design of the city's landscape, rather than the design of its buildings. The phrase 'landscape urbanism' first appeared in the mid 1990s.Because of a trend called Landscape Urbanism, where, among other things, landscape is used to hide urban form. It's a pretty flawed urban design theory, but unfortunately it is very trendy right now and it is being pushed very heavily from Harvard and other major players in urban theory. The whole open space system at Apple Park is totally influenced by landscape urbanism: artificial hills, planting mature trees, vast naturalized fields, etc. It's great for some purposes, but unfortunately you end up with very suburban forms that are not very walkable and are not dense enough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_urbanism
This could also lead to more congestion.
The drawing is a section, not a plan.
They can get in via the loading dock behind the stage or via the side tunnel branching off the tunnel leading to the loading dock:
Those $14,000 seats could've been exchanged for $1,000 seats with the $13,000 left over going to an outreach program or charity. Apple/Tim Cook are all about giving other people's money away, but not their own. It's hypocritical and undermines their "we love the world" image.
There are three staircases leading to the surface at three of the four 'corners' of the circular entrance building (start at 1:02 in this video), two of them are roughly at the two back corners of the actual theatre hall. Plus there is, see above, the loading dock tunnel accessed from the backstage area and the side tunnel starting in the area between the theatre hall and the entrance building. There are also hallways along both sides of the theatre channelling people to either the loading dock, the side tunnel and/or the emergency stairs around the entrance building.
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