By Khalida Sarwari
Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong reacted enthusiastically today to Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ announcement on Tuesday night of his plans to build a 3.1-million-square-foot campus in the city.
“This is a huge shot in the arm for us,” Wong told reporters at a news conference this morning. “While other cities are struggling, we can grow.”
Wearing his trademark black turtleneck and blue jeans, Jobs presented his proposal for a new Apple campus in a surprise appearance at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.
“We’ve come up with a design that puts 12,000 people in one building,” Jobs told the city council. “It’s a pretty amazing building. It’s a little like a spaceship landed.”
The new facility would be built on nearly 150 acres of land Apple purchased from Hewlett Packard. The space is currently mostly asphalt with some landscaping, which Jobs said he wanted to increase by doubling the trees on the property.
Jobs envisioned curved four-story building with a parking garage underneath and a courtyard in the middle.
Amenities would include an on-site energy center, auditorium, cafeteria, and fitness center.
Groundbreaking for the new campus would take place next year with a scheduled opening in 2015.
Apple is the largest employer in Cupertino. Roughly 2,800 people work in the main campus while the remaining 12,000 work in rented buildings throughout the city. Jobs originally announced the plan to build a new campus in April 2006.
“Apple’s grown like a weed,” Jobs said. “We need the building we’ve got, but we need another one to augment it.”