Apple’s Austin Campus Rendering Unveiled

Several days ago, AppleInsider posted photos of a second building being constructed at Apple’s upcoming Austin campus, which is an important driver of new residents in Austin who will want urban living.

The internet went abuzz when Apple ground broke on the first building about a month ago, and people are still scratching their heads about what the campus will look like, but no longer.

Austin Towers has obtained an image on what to expect, and no, it is not the Cupertino Spaceship twin.

Apple plans seven office buildings totaling 1 million square feet.  Two of the buildings, as noted by AppleInsider, are under construction.

Hers some more details Austin Towers has learned: 

Apple has redesigned the original site plan (pdf) from before it got involved in the development to reflect a campus approach, which replaces oodles of surface parking spaces with three garages capable of holding 5,500 cars.  Austin Towers has also learned that Apple is putting the pedal down on construction and using a bold maneuver, called a “Fast Track” permit, in order to complete one of those parking garages by the time the first office building is done. A Fast Track application allows for initial work to begin on a development while the remainder of the plan is still under review, and is at Apple’s own risk.

Meanwhile, traditional driveways on the original plan are being replaced in the Apple plan with pedestrian courts and corridors to the greatest extent possible. In all, the Apple plan reduced the original proposal from 80 percent impervious cover (meaning 80 percent of the ground was going to be covered by concrete or asphalt) to about 55 percent.

We’re glad to learn that Apple’s plan will retain all the large trees (aka. Heritage Trees), including some that had previously been approved to be removed.

AppleInsider notes that the entire project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2021.

This project exemplifies a future “reverse commute” from urban living in Downtown Austin to suburban offices. Assuming that a good portion of these future Apple employees are millennials, the school of thought – which seems very plausible – is that as TV shows like Seinfeld, Friends and Sex in the City has created the next Shangri-La to be walkable urban places, as opposed to white picket fences.

That means that even though Apple is building in the suburbs, the bulk of new jobs created are expected to appeal to a demographic that will search for homes closer to the walkable, recreation-centric neighborhoods near downtown Austin.