One of the most vexing features was the doorways, which Apple wanted to be perfectly flat, with no threshold. The construction team pushed back, but Apple held firm. The rationale? If engineers had to adjust their gait while entering the building, they risked distraction from their work, according to a former construction manager.
“We spent months trying not to do that because that’s time, money and stuff that’s never been done before,” the former construction manager said.
— Reuters
Although detail-obsessed architects can often find working with broad-strokes contractors to be challenging, there's one group of designers with perhaps even more rigorous attention to detail: the team at Apple. According to this article in Reuters, the actual building of the "spaceship" Apple Campus in Cupertino has been an unusually precise experience for those working in construction. According to the article, among many other requirements, "Apple's in-house construction team enforced many rules: No vents or pipes could be reflected in the glass. Guidelines for the special wood used frequently throughout the building ran to some 30 pages." Think perfect?
2 Comments
If they wanted a 2" threshold, they would have listed a 2" threshold. Just build the damn thing that you bid, and won, during tender.
Fairly incredible, though entirely unsurprising, that Foster was not mentioned in the article.
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