SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the should-really-be-in-space-or-undersea dept.
When Apple finishes its new $5 billion headquarters in Cupertino, California, the technorati will ooh and ahh over its otherworldly architecture, patting themselves on the back for yet another example of "innovation." Countless employees, tech bloggers, and design fanatics are already lauding the "futuristic" building and its many "groundbreaking" features. But few are aware that Apple's monumental project is already outdated, mimicking a half-century of stagnant suburban corporate campuses that isolated themselves—by design—from the communities their products were supposed to impact.
In the 1940s and '50s, when American corporations first flirted with a move to the 'burbs, CEOs realized that horizontal architecture immersed in a park-like buffer lent big business a sheen of wholesome goodness. The exodus was triggered, in part, by inroads the labor movement was making among blue-collar employees in cities. At the same time, the increasing diversity of urban populations meant it was getting harder and harder to maintain an all-white workforce. One by one, major companies headed out of town for greener pastures, luring desired employees into their gilded cages with the types of office perks familiar to any Googler.
Rockstar coders don't do suburbs?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @04:45PM
I think wordsmithing is a dying art and for good reason. The author here really just has one point which can surmised as: "Apple's not building their in an urban area and I don't like that." What is the purpose of the other 6,700 words other than to push people away from their article? Somewhat ironic given their likely faux concern for making things more approachable for the 'less fortunate' in society. If Apple had decided to build their city right smack in the middle of downtown somewhere they'd instead be complaining that it will result in cultural annihilation as urban culture is literally paved over with out of reach highrises built to sate the influx of well paid racquetball playing white collars driving around in their Teslas doing little other than to emphasize the fact that there are 2 (and in reality more like 5) Americas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @07:46PM
I see what you did there.