Apple dreams of campuses
1983 - 2017
When I got to Silicon Valley in 1983, I drove around looking for the headquarters of my favorite personal computer companies, like Visicorp and Mountain Hardware. I was sure they would be magnificent corporate edifices. And I just knew the most amazing building of all would be the home of the best company, Apple Computer, Inc. I pictured Apple in a futuristic high-rise with a giant lit-up rotating six-color Apple logo on top, visible for miles around.
What I saw actually looked like this. One-story, non-gleaming, non-magical tilt-ups on suburban streets.
I was surprised and disappointed by Apple’s actual buildings. But I got over it as I went to work. In 1983 at Apple, a lot of great stuff was going on. There was the thrilling future promised by the Lisa, the beautiful renewal of the Apple //e, and the this-time-for-sure Apple /// Plus, all launched that year. We were getting an exciting new CEO, John Sculley. I was 23 and deeply in love with the company. I was having fun just going to work every day.
Not all of those things worked out for the best. And there’s one other 1983 Apple project that’s kind of vanished into the mists of history: SuperSite. This was Steve Jobs’s first dream of a great company campus, to be built in a meadow and on a hillside in San Jose, about half an hour away from Cupertino. Possibly related is the story that Apple had asked the city to rename Bandley Drive, the street where most of Apple’s buildings stood, to Apple Drive. Cupertino said no. Maybe Cupertino didn’t love us enough and we had to go somewhere else.
According to legend (and the Mercury News), Steve Jobs took a helicopter ride to an IBM campus in the semi-rural Coyote Valley area of South San Jose. He looked around and checked out the rolling green and trees, walked toward the hills, and imagined a big glass building in the middle of nature as part of a gorgeous Apple campus. He wanted to keep the trees and other natural surroundings as pristine as possible. As the idea moved forward, land was acquired, and Apple hired an internationally famous architect to design the place. If all that sounds familiar, it’s because Apple Park was built with the same plan and principles, about 30 years later.
Back in Cupertino, word spread quickly among the employees about SuperSite. The plan was exciting to us, just like a new Apple computer would be. But then we started to think about real-world things like our commute. You know, the actual daily act of getting to work. Most Apple people had chosen where to live based on proximity to Cupertino. Now we would be working far away. Apple said something about building housing near the new site, to create a kind of company town. That sounded fun, but it was vague. And I don’t think any of us young pups had a good understanding of how many years of negotiating and construction would have to pass before we were actually working at SuperSite.
I remember one Apple exec saying he was worried about SuperSite because it would wipe out his favorite golf course. That statement was maybe a little tone deaf while others were wondering about moving and affording rent. Anyway, SuperSite didn’t happen, but the golf course is still there—and they take Apple Pay. No hard feelings, I guess.
Here’s a funny thing: I don’t think there was any press coverage of SuperSite at the time. That’s astonishing compared to today, when everything Apple does — or is rumored to do — is covered massively by publications big and small, websites, the financial press, and all over social media. Those things didn’t exist or didn’t care so much about Apple back in 1983.
Whether it was a good idea or not so good, SuperSite was way ahead of its time. The plans didn’t stick and eventually melted away due to city politics, a bad economy, and Steve Jobs leaving Apple. But I guess Steve hung on to the idea for all those decades. In 2011 he presented the plans for Apple Campus 2 to the Cupertino City Council. And in 2017, Apple Park opened, featuring a big glass building in the middle of fields of grass and trees. Of course, there is no rotating neon logo on top. But wouldn’t it be cool if there was?
When I moved to Cupertino in 1996 I was eager to see Atari’s old HQ in Sunnyvale. So your mixed feelings really spoke to me.
I have a vague memory of Apple still owning that SuperSite property up until Cupertino approved Apple Park.
The contrast between imagination and reality in 1983 is so relateable. That sense of disappointment turning into excitment once you're inside is something anyone who's joined a tech company knows. The Bandley 3 photo really captures how diffrent things were back then, almost hard to belive Apple was already cooking up the Lisa and //e from those modest bulidings. Must have been an incredible time to be 23 and working there.