Foster's authorship has not yet been officially announced, but his collaboration with Apple was announced last year, and the Architizer portal managed to obtain confirmation of this from unofficial sources. So far, the only source of information about the project is a video broadcast on local television in which Steve Jobs presents the plan to the authorities in the California town of Cupertino. There is still the headquarters of Apple, but 9,500 of its employees are located in different buildings, and by 2015, when construction is planned to be completed, the corporation will already employ 13,000 people.
The new building is designed for all of them, which, according to Jobs, will become the best office in the world (!). It looks like a circular glass ring, located on a 60 hectare site, 80% of the territory of which (including a huge courtyard) will be turned into a park of 6,000 trees (this will be an apricot orchard).
The building with an area of 288 thousand m2 will be completely "green": glass facades will protect from the sun "cornices" with a large offset, electricity for it will be generated by its own power plant on natural gas, the number of ground parking spaces for employees will be only 1200.
In parallel with the Apple project, Foster's bureau prepared a much more traditional plan for Lebanon: the 3Beirut residential complex is reminiscent of buildings of late modernism and will be the first building in Beirut with a green roof. It consists of many rectangular volumes of different heights, and deep loggias protect all apartments from overheating. Gardens, shops, cafes, an art gallery and a gym are planned at ground level.
