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Steve Jobs Theater Includes Custom-Made Rotating Elevators and Retractable Wall Hiding Demo Area

Sadly, we have to remember that this auditorium is on private property meaning Apple didn't make it for the general public to use. They didn't even make it just for "announcements". Having worked on a number of corporate presentation events, that's actually a pretty large facility for just that - internal presentations from Apple C-level to Apple employees and possible business to business presentations. Pretty cool place to invite 1000 retail employees to corporate HQ to inspire them with the launch and rollout of the next great thing…

I mean think about it. Sitting on a $14,000 seat. That's pretty inspiring by itself.
 
Will the arm wrests have USB-C charging ports only? Will the elevators rotate so fast everyone will be thrown to the walls? Will it smell like formaldehyde?
 
iReality85 said:
1,000 seats is still a lot.
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No, 1,000 seats is not really a noteworthy number.

War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco seats about 3,100; Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall seats 2,700 (some seats are behind the stage in the latter venue). Flint Center at nearby De Anza College seats 2,400. Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University seats right about 840 (also some seats behind the stage).

New York's Metropolitan Opera House seats 3,800 which is considered a large stage by opera standards. Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall (NYC) seats 2,800.

Even the puny California Theater -- current home of Opera San Jose -- seats over 1,100 people.
 
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kmj2318 said:
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.
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It’s too far. Instead, the more practical method of getting execs to the theatre are through the parking garage (there’s a direct connection to backstage from the garage or better yet, by driving down the service ramp right to the backstage area.

H7wCGoL_d.jpg


The underground theatre is highlighted in yellow. Backstage entrances in red.
 
ChromeCloud said:
Given Apple cash resources, I'm surprised there is not an underground monorail connecting the theater to Tim Cook's bedroom.
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All the secret tunnels and deep underground labs where they test the Apple robots are not on any plans...
 
Peperino said:
Rotating elevators? $14,000 seats?

Are they really proud to show this? They should be ashamed of putting the money in a theater rather than product development.

Now I understand why the priorities are wrong at APPLE...
Innovation should be for the products, not for a Theater...

It seems like they forgot that the Pro's machine were a complete failure (Mac Pro, Macbook Pro) and the upgrade cycles of all machines are taking much longer (Mac Mini, iMac, iPad, etc)...

So much for product innovation...

This actually is so sad....
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Too many moaners who don't even read the article around here!!!
 
ConfusedChris said:
Some people don’t like sitting on dead animals. Just saying.
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Some people don't like seeing dead animals, even if they are only on the neighbouring table's dinner plates. Do people refuse to ride an Uber because it has leather seats? Some people don't like touching wood that was not responsibly 'harvested'. Or touching metal that wasn't mined child labour-free.
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ipedro said:
It’s too far. Instead, the more practical method of getting execs to the theatre are through the parking garage (there’s a direct connection to backstage from the garage or better yet, by driving down the service ramp right to the backstage area.

H7wCGoL_d.jpg


The underground theatre is highlighted in yellow. Backstage entrances in red.
Click to expand...
The left one is just a bridge from the parking garage to the overground walking paths. It looks identical to the bridge in the top-left corner of the image. And both have aboveground paths leading to them. There however is also the side tunnel entrance off the backstage loading dock ramp just below the entrance building structure in the photo.
 
Four oF NINE said:
What kind of emergency occurs in an underground bunker? I would think in case of any actual emergency, an underground bunker is a good place to be.
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Well, it's a theater, not a bunker. A bunker would be designed to hold a limited people for a period of time (usually several days to weeks) and is designed to protect those inside from external threats, while a theater is designed to hold a large number of people for an event/performance (2-4 hours), then expect them to leave.

Emergencies to worry about:
Fire - Smoke kills, and getting people out in a hurry saves lives. People will have to climb stairs to get out of this thing, and fire also likes to move up stairs, so it may be a race to see who loses. Another thing is that most theaters have two egress directions, one towards the screen and one away from it. This is important, again to save lives, as if there a threat (fire, freak, rupture in a sewage line that runs through the 3rd row), all of the people can get out.

Flood - You're in a (hopefully) well sealed container underground and water is gushing down the stairs... How do those in wheelchairs get out?

Earthquake - You have earth all around you, and now it's starting to shake. It may be safer to stay in there, until it's over.

Idiots with weapons and agendas - I know, very low probability, but if hoping it doesn't happen isn't a plan.

Just for sure, I'm confident that Apple and the architects have thought of all of these things. I'm just curious as to their solutions.
 
diego said:
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

Groundlab%2BLandscape%2BUrbanism%2Baerial2.jpg
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So where is this and what is this supposed to be?
 
ipedro said:
It’s too far. Instead, the more practical method of getting execs to the theatre are through the parking garage (there’s a direct connection to backstage from the garage or better yet, by driving down the service ramp right to the backstage area.

H7wCGoL_d.jpg


The underground theatre is highlighted in yellow. Backstage entrances in red.
Click to expand...


I think it's pretty depressing that workers/execs are going to be driving from one side of campus to the other. Perfect representation of endlessly suburban North America.
 
ApostolisApo said:
you guys are more predictable even than a Michael Bay film
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Just curious, do you own an iPad Mini 4? Because I do and my only complaint is the substandard display. I still use my Nexus 7 2013 for reading because the iPad's display is crippled by low contrast at low brightness settings. Compared to an iPad Pro the Mini 4's display is a POS.

How is it that a cheap four year old tablet has superior contrast to a premium modern tablet?
 
The Bloomberg article says "according to someone with knowledge of the design", but this info has been public since Apple submitted floor plans to Cupertino city years ago, so really it's "according to someone who bothered to glance at what Apple made public". ;)

The plans clearly show not one but two retractable walls, one of glass and the other of an acoustic material. You can see where they're stored and the track along which they move into place.

More interesting are the three huge hydraulic lifts in the middle of the house seating. Now those are a mystery.

More info on the retractable wall (and some other interesting tidbits about the theater):
https://jobstobedisrupted.wordpress...rious-things-about-apples-steve-jobs-theater/
 
Their money, their designers, their decisions, their choices. If you can do better, prove it by showing up at Apple HQ and applying for a job.

Glad they didn't delegate to the great unwashed for consultancy, there'd be 100,000 different "ideas" and it would still be wasteland.
 
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