The real-estate reporter for the Silicon Valley Business Journal has uncovered a building in the plans for Apple’s $5 billion Spaceship campus that no one else noticed.
Buried in city documents filed this spring, Nathan Donato-Weinstein found detailed architect’s drawings and artist’s renderings of a visitor’s center with cafe, retail shop and rooftop observation deck.
The center is not part of the new Cupertino campus. It’s set across the street, at 10700 N. Tantau Ave., facing the southeast quadrant of the Pentagon-sized headquarters.
According to Donato-Weinstein:
“The plans show a super-modern glass-walled structure topped by a carbon-fiber roof with extended eaves, punctuated by large skylights. On the ground floor: A 2,386-square-foot cafe and 10,114-square-foot store “which allows visitors to view and purchase the newest Apple products.” Stairs and elevators take visitors to the roof level, about 23 feet up. There, they’ll be able to behold the multi-billion-dollar campus, a kind of monument to the late co-founder and Apple’s tremendous money machine.”
A screen will block visitor’s views into the backyards of the single-family homes behind them.
Below: The view from the north. The Spaceship is over the bike rider’s right shoulder.
More drawings here.
See also: An iPhone as big as the Pentagon
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at coins2day.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.