A circle is whole, continuous, unbroken, closed. Its shape implies completeness, a kind of unified perfection. Apple Park, Apple’s ring-shaped new headquarters designed by Foster + Partners, invites interpretation; it is a building and a symbol. Located in Cupertino, California, Apple Park is a 21st century update of the mid-20th century corporate office campus, enhanced with environmental sensitivity and an emphasis on employee wellness.

In most of the United States, the suburban corporate campus has fallen out of fashion as a business ideal. Many companies have returned at least part of their operations to central cities, locations that younger educated workers are believed to prefer. The technology companies of Silicon Valley, however, have largely bucked this trend, with an ever-sprawling footprint with all the ensuing environmental and social burdens that entails. Apple’s grand investment in Cupertino cements its suburban identity, and by extension, the suburban Bay Area as the dominant landscape of the technology industry in the United States...[+]