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Apple’s new campus opens to employees, public this year

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Apple said Wednesday it will begin the process of moving thousands of employees to its new Cupertino buildings in April.

The 175-acre campus is the largest construction project in Cupertino since the Vallco shopping mall was built in the 1970s. The main building is made out of curved glass from Germany, creating a look that some compare to a flying saucer. The new campus will be called Apple Park.

“It’s nice to (call it) a name other than the spaceship,” joked Angela Tsui, Cupertino’s economic development manager. “It is really exciting to see it come to fruition because it is such a massive and expensive project.”

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This image provided by Apple shows the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in Cupertino, Calif. Apple announced that its new headquarters will open for employees in the spring 2017 and will include the theater named for late company co-founder. (Apple via AP)
This image provided by Apple shows the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in Cupertino, Calif. Apple announced that its new headquarters will open for employees in the spring 2017 and will include the theater named for late company co-founder. (Apple via AP)Associated Press

The new complex, on the site of an old HP office park, will be home to more than 12,000 employees, who will move there over the course of more than six months, the company said. Apple Park will run entirely on renewable energy. It bills itself as environmentally friendly, with more than 9,000 native trees replacing 5 million square feet of concrete and asphalt. Apple Park will also offer 2 miles of walking and running paths for employees, a pond, and a theater named after co-founder Steve Jobs that will seat 1,000 people.

“Steve’s vision for Apple stretched far beyond his time with us,” CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “He intended Apple Park to be the home of innovation for generations to come.”

Cupertino is so populated by Apple employees that some people have jokingly called it “Appletino.” Later this year, Apple will open a visitor center, cafe and store to the public at Apple Park, which the city estimates could could draw hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.

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In addition to the campus, Apple will continue to have engineers at its buildings on Infinite Loop. Chief executive Tim Cook will move his office to Apple Park.

The company won approval from the city for the project in 2013, but it has had brushes with controversy. In 2015, some Apple Park construction workers suddenly lost their jobs after background checks showed that they had felony convictions within the prior seven years. After The Chronicle wrote about the dismissals, which drew ire from union officials, Apple said it “may have excluded some people who deserve a second chance” and that it would instruct contractors to evaluate “all applicants equally, on a case by case basis, as we would for any role at Apple.”

Apple hasn’t revealed the total cost for the project, but Bloomberg estimated in 2013 that it could be near $5 billion. The design will help the company recruit, and also reflects how Apple is always pushing the envelope on technology, said Mina Chow, a senior lecturer at University of Southern California School of Architecture.

“Corporate headquarters are all about making a statement,” she said. “Even when you had the period of emperors and kings, it’s all about making a statement. Architecture is the identity of a culture. We build what we believe we are.”

Laurene Powell Jobs said her late husband was inspired by the California landscape, calling it Steve Jobs’ “favorite setting for thought.”

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“Apple Park captures his spirit uncannily well,” she said in a statement.

Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: wlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee

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Wendy Lee covers Yahoo, Google and Apple for The Chronicle’s tech desk. Previously, she worked at NPR-affiliate 89.3 FM KPCC in Pasadena, Star Tribune in Minneapolis and The Tennessean in Nashville.

Lee grew up in the Bay Area. She won The Chronicle’s high school scholarship in 2001 and landed a summer job as a copyperson at the paper, delivering mail, answering phones and writing news briefs. Lee graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in history and wrote for campus newspaper The Daily Californian.

She is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association and a preliminary judge for The Gerald Loeb Awards.