sustainable architecture

The company is missing a key opportunity to develop a walkable neighborhood.

Apple is already a world leader in consumer technology; this was its chance to be a world leader also for community-oriented sustainability.

The corporation has shown a commendable ability to support transit and walkability in certain neighborhoods where it has retail outlets. Another high-tech giant with a need for security, Amazon, is showing how to revive an older neighborhood for its new, highly walkable headquarters in Seattle. Google has signaled its strong desire to position its future headquarters amid a mixed-use, housing- and transit-rich environment. So the potential was there.

Instead, Apple chose to design its new headquarters as if it were a new consumer product, an “iBuilding” of sorts with a clean, high-concept design that reinforces the company’s futuristic corporate brand. In that sense, it probably succeeded: the building is cool-looking in an abstract sort of way, the kind of structure that will make people go “wow.”

But it does nothing to make Silicon Valley a better environment for people, and might even make it harder to improve the walkability of Cupertino by sealing off potential walking routes...