Apple Park Landscape Tour App
“…a personal meditation on the art of landscape design by a seasoned master”
Laurie Olin describes the project as more like a piece of infrastructure than architecture.
“It’s so large that you never see more than a small piece at a time.”
… snatched glimpses of a continuous four-story curved glass façade among the trees, and in much of the large wooded site no views of the building at all.
The chief experience on the site, both from outside and inside the building—whose circulation, at Jobs’ insistence, is along the glazed exterior—is of the landscape, a landscape composed of naturalistic elements.
There are no grand axes, no allées or parterres, none of those stylish geometric curves that are so fashionable these days. Instead there are clumps of trees, rolling greensward, wildflower meadows, and functioning orchards.
https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/the-untold-story-of-apple-park_o/
Since 2019 I have been honored and privileged to work closely with Laurie Olin and our talented
design team in curating and developing content for the landscape tour app of one of OLIN’s
favorite clients. Laurie was hired by the former head of a large tech company in California in 2011,
and designed a incomparable landscape that brought their vision to life. Given a truly one-in-alifetime
project of such magnitude, with a client that is ushering in a new technological utopia,
Laurie and the designers dove into one of OLIN’s most signi cant projects to date. I was brought
on to manage OLIN’s contribution the unreleased Landscape Tour App. I worked with our client
and app developer, writing content and acquiring photography, drawings, and illustrations for
over 150 plants, 10 landmarks, ve tours, 15 viewpoints, as well as providing assistance with
geolocating and mapping plants on campus, working with the client’s in house AR team, and
assisting Laurie with his own writing and voice-over tour narration which will be a special feature
in the app.
There are 9,000 trees on the Apple Park campus, of 309 varieties are native species. The planted trees are Oak savanna, Oak wood, and fruit trees including apple, apricot, plum, cherry, and persimmon. An additional 15 acres (6 ha) are used for a native California grassland.
Among the apple varieties represented are Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Gravenstein, and Pink Lady.
Landscape Design Overview
Green Transformation: Converted 175 acres from 80% paved space into an 80% green, pastoral campus.
Native Plantings: Integrated thousands of drought-tolerant, native Californian trees and wildflower meadows.
Orchards: Restored historical agricultural ties by planting hundreds of fruit trees reminiscent of the Santa Clara Valley. [1, 2]
Key Campus Features
Walking & Jogging Trails: Features 2 miles of dedicated paths winding through the interior and exterior grounds.
Courtyard Spaces: Includes a central interior green court with freestanding terrace cafes and reflective water pools.
Structure Integration: Blends landscape over subterranean parking structures and around the Steve Jobs Theater