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 But few are aware that Apple's monumental project is already outdated, mimicking a half-century of stagnant suburban corporate campuses that isolated themselves—by design—from the communities their products were supposed to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: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 20 2016, @05:44PM
I was thinking more along the lines of a building that you might think is a good idea today, but an embarrassment tomorrow.
Imagine if someone designed a building shaped like a dildo.
Oh, wait. Nevermind. It's been done.
In London for example. No, I don't mean Big Ben as a square dildo. But St Mary Axe, aka The Gherkin.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/06/buildings-look-like-penises_n_5453695.html [huffingtonpost.com]
http://www.dezeen.com/2012/09/06/towers-with-unfortunate-likenesses/ [dezeen.com]
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.