It took a bit, but the pushback on the proposed Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, has started:
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While communities all up and down the Silicon Valley are trying to repair sprawl by replacing it with smart growth, Apple is actually taking a site that is now parking lots and low-rise boxes and making it worse for the community. Yes, it will be iconic, assuming you think a building shaped like a whitewall motorcycle tire is iconic, but it will reduce current street connectivity, seal off potential walking routes and, as I wrote some time back, essentially turn its back on its community. With a parking garage designed to hold over ten thousand cars, by the way.
And who was it who said that an organization has reached its zenith and begins to decline after it builds its monumental headquarters?
UPDATE: Compare Apple with Amazon – How Amazon Got the Urban Campus Right, from Atlantic Cities:
Using a location in the center of the Amazon buildings, I obtained an impresive “walker’s paradise” Walk Score of 98, supported by a “rider’s paradise” Transit Score of 90. That’s outstanding by any measure. (By contrast, a site picked in the middle of the location for the new Apple headquarters in Cupertino, which I reviewed yesterday, rated only a “car-dependent” Walk Score of 49.)
In addition to the streetcar, there are nearly fifty bus routes running through the neighborhood. One can go directly to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport via rail transit.
There is an excellent New Yorker article from September 2011 about the building http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/09/apple-new-headquarters.html. I particularly liked the conclusion: Architecture isn’t in itself a cause of corporate decline—that notion is ridiculous—but overbearing buildings can sometimes be a symptom of companies losing touch with reality, and this problem will manifest itself in other ways. It’s said that Steve Jobs considers this building to be a key part of his legacy, which would be unfortunate, because it would mean that his last contribution to his company might well be his least meaningful.