The Apple employees’ complaint letter is also a road map for reopening offices

When Apple unveiled its new, 175-acre campus in 2017, the project was lauded for its elegant, minimalist architecture and eco-friendly features. Apple Park’s bespoke chairs and elevator buttons, its nearly three-story-high sliding glass doors in the cafeteria, the distressed stone in the yoga studio, the massive spaceship-like Ring building—it all made sense for a company that had built its reputation on forward-thinking design.

However, something was off, as Quartz’s then tech editor Mike Murphy reported at the time. “Every surface, every path, every plain, and every sightline on Apple Campus has been considered. Materials were agonized over,” he wrote after a visit. “But what I don’t get, after spending far more hours wandering around a glass cathedral in the middle of Silicon Valley, is why.” He wondered, was this even a place where employees would enjoy working? “So much seems to have been considered about Apple’s campus,” he wrote, “apart from what it’s really for.”

The $5 billion headquarters, planned by Apple’s legendary founder Steve Jobs, was supposed to speak to Apple’s long-term future, but it apparently wasn’t speaking to employees’ early 21st century needs. According to rumors, Apple employees were walking into glass walls and injuring themselves. Critics noted the campus was missing a daycare. Engineers didn’t like the open-plan office.

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