Insiders call it the Mothership. It’s Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, California, and to Apple fans, it’s a place thought of with romance and wonder. Only the privileged elect have ever been deep within its most secretive recesses, but after an extensive search, I turned up 30 70 156 pictures Inside Apple HQ that Apple probably doesn’t want you to see.
Jump to a specific section:
Atriums | Hallways | Offices & Cubicles | Meeting Rooms | Room/Door Signs | Break Room | Common Areas | Caffé Macs | Company Store | Executive Briefing Center | Town Hall | Labs | Recreation | Bandley Fitness Center | Parking Garage
It’s the Chocolate Factory for tech nerds. The one super-secret place we all want to see — and the one place precious few of us ever will.
Search the web for “Apple HQ” or “Apple Headquarters” and most of the results you get will be pictures of Apple’s Cupertino headquarters — from the outside. Usually with some fanboy or fangirl standing next to the “1 Infinite Loop” sign. But what we really want to see is what’s inside the ultra-top-secret place where all our favorite gizmos are dreamed up.
This discussion will be moot a few years down the road when Apple opens its gigantic new wheel-shaped campus. But for now, this is the ultimate Nerdvana, and here Apple Gazette presents a comprehensive collection of the only photos you’re likely to ever see of it.
CHANGE LOG:
- 11.19.12 – 86 new photos added, entire page overhauled and reorganized
- 4.21.12 – 36 new photos added, including images from the Executive Briefing Center, employee work spaces, and much more.
- 4.21.12 – Numerous descriptions clarified with added details, including building numbers.
- 4.9.12 – Four new photos added, thanks to an Apple Gazette reader!
- 4.9.12 – Two “Hallway” photos relocated to “Town Hall” section, as they were taken in lobby of Town Hall area.
- 4.9.12 – One “Meeting Room” photo moved to the “Design Lab” section, per a reader suggestion.
- 4.9.12 – Added name “Caffé Macs” to campus cafeteria description.
Atriums & Reception Desks
The primary executive building is located at 1 Infinite Loop. Employees call this building “IL1” for short. When you first walk inside, you’re greeted by this welcome/reception desk, situated inside the massive, open air atrium with its bright natural light and suspended walkways.
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Huge walkways stretch across the atrium, connecting one side of the building with another.
The atrium is a huge central hub, similar to the one at Pixar’s headquarters, where employees frequently run into each other coming and going.
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The atrium also plays home to a gigantic banner that’s changed frequently to tout Apple’s latest and greatest product.
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Past MacWorld attendees may remember a few years ago when Apple created a big wall that dynamically showed off the icons for iOS apps as they were being purchased, in real time. The next year, Apple took this concept to the next level with a very long table that was filled with iPads. Both of these giant displays were carted back to Apple Headquarters in Cupertino after MacWorld ended, so that company staff could check them out.
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Here’s another atrium or lobby, this one located at the front entrance to IL4.
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Here’s the atrium/large interior space at another building that’s part of the Apple Campus. I can’t tell which one (maybe one of our readers can identify it?), but the architecture is different than the executive building. The original captions with these photos explain that Apple frequently brings in musicians to play mini concerts for employees during their lunch break.
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Somewhere on campus is this little area that looks like a miniature museum. Or, at least it was. The following two pictures were both taken in 1999. Can anyone verify that these items are still around, or long gone? I include these pics here, because the window reflections make them look as though they’re found at an entrance.
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Here’s one more reception desk somewhere on campus. No idea what building or department. Or it may be a presentation podium; that looks like a projection screen on the right edge of the pic.
Hallway Sights
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Special thanks to reader Rehan Mehta, who sent us these four further pictures from an inside hallway/entrance on the Apple campus. (These images are copyrighted to Rehan Mehta, and used by permission.) According to Rehan, “If I remember correctly, this was a hallway (from the 4 or 5 Infinite Loop entrance) that led straight to the courtyard in the middle.” You can see some nifty black & white pictures of Steve Jobs on these walls, along with a quote from him printed on a large canvas.
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Offices & Cubicles
That stuff’s all well and good, but what about where the actual work gets done? If you’re hoping to get a glimpse inside Tim Cook’s office, you can dream on. It’s probably one of the most off-limits areas on the entire campus. But several employees have snapped photos of their offices and cubicles. First, offices:
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And here’s a look at cubicles from various departments.
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Meeting Rooms
Each department at a mega-company the size of Apple needs a good Meeting Room in which to gather. As you’d expect, Apple Headquarters has a number of very cool, tech-heavy meeting rooms.
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Common Areas
Like the Atrium in IL1, there are many open areas sprinkled across the Apple campus, conducive to informal chats or brainstorming sessions between employees.
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I can’t tell where the following photo was taken. Again, perhaps one of our readers can identify it. This is a picture that originated in Forbes magazine. Clearly it shows some sort of informal gathering place on campus, but I have no idea if it’s part of the cafeteria or another break room. You may recognize a few of the famous faces in this one.
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Room/Door Signs
All over Apple’s Cupertino campus, a sense of humor is evident among the signs adorning walls and doors. I love these!
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If you need to make a pit stop, you could see restroom signs that look like these.
Here’s a better look at the restroom area where those signs originate.
Inside the restrooms, you might see this cheeky reminder to wash your hands.
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Don’t know where this recycle bin is situated, but I would imagine there are identical ones all over the campus.
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Break Room
Apple is a demanding environment to work in, where everyone is expected to bring their A-game. So it’s nice to see that employees have some cool places like this to go to take a break. There are refreshments available, and informal events like the anniversary plaque presentation seen below are held here. Perhaps as a precursor to the forthcoming round-shaped “spaceship” headquarters, this Break Room is also round.
Caffé Macs
Hungry? Head over to the huge campus cafeteria, “Caffé Macs.” The food’s not free — not even for employees — but it’s inexpensive, healthy, and offers a huge selection, including lots of daily specials. Those who’ve eaten there rave over the delicious, high-quality food.
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To give you an idea of the cuisine offered at Caffé Macs, here are some images captured showing signs that label and describe the specials offered. (Note that even these internal-use-only printer pages are made using Apple’s publication style guides, including the company’s signature font.)
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Apple Company Store
The one and only place inside Apple Headquarters that’s open to the public is the Company Store. It’s the only place where you won’t get accosted by security for taking pictures, and the only place in the world where you can buy Apple logo merchandise, like shirts and hats (though they also sell iPods and other Apple products).
This campus phone — for use on-site only — looks as if it’s located right outside the Apple Company Store. Probably comes in handy when your close personal friend who’s an Apple executive invites you on a personal tour but security won’t let you inside.
Executive Briefing Center
Part of the 5 Infinite Loop building is dedicated to the Executive Briefing Center, which Apple uses to hold meetings with its business partners. Apple has also used it for other purposes, such as education conferences and the like. This is one area of the campus where non-employees are allowed — but it’s by invitation only. Note that most of these photos of the EBC are from about five years ago, so they may not reflect its current configuration.
Town Hall
When Apple calls one of its trademark “keynote” press conferences, it usually takes place at a public facility in San Francisco. But occasionally, for a more intimate setting, Apple brings the press to it’s own theater, which it calls the Apple Town Hall. Located at 4 Infinite Loop, a number of events have been held here over the years, including the infamous “Antennagate” event.
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This podium is probably located the Town Hall, but I don’t know that for sure. But since there’s nowhere else to put it, I’m sticking it in here.
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Labs
The holy grail of Apple headquarters is the place where the real magic happens: the labs. These super-secret departments are responsible for the creative design and building of Apple’s sleek, sexy products. The labs include the Computer Labs, the Wireless Testing Lab, and Jony Ive’s Industrial Design Group Lab, among others.
An Apple employee posted the next two photos on Flickr, describing the area only as “the lab.” Obviously it’s some kind of computer lab, but it’s anybody’s guess as to exactly what happens there, or where on campus it’s located. It’s not a flashy place, but I’d bet it’s important.
For the first time ever, Apple opened up some of its most private doors for the press to see after the “Antennagate” outcry following the release of the iPhone 4. Namely, they showed off the state-of-the-art Wireless Testing Lab where Apple puts its latest iPhone models through their paces, testing things like signal strength and user interference.
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There’s one place inside Apple HQ that most tech heads and Apple fanboys would crawl buck naked over broken glass to get inside of. Deep within the bowels of hardware manufacturing building IL6 — seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was underground — is the Industrial Design Group Lab. Given how jealously Apple guards its secrets, it’s surprising to get even a single glimpse of it — much less the treasure trove of images you’ll find below. Ladies, enjoy the Ive-y eye candy in this first one. Behind his biceps are some pretty hardcore industrial machinery.
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Those two images were part of this article when it was originally published. But more recently, I hit the motherlode. An official recruitment video made by Apple was leaked onto the Web, and within it were several terrific looks at the inside of the Design Lab. I took screengrabs of every location, and present them below.
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Recreation
When Apple employees need some downtime away from the deadlines and technogeekery, there are several recreation areas they can visit to clear their heads and get a little exercise and fresh air.
Employees can play basketball or volleyball on the on-campus courts.
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Bandley Fitness Center
On another part of Apple’s campus is located a building called the Bandley Fitness Center. Providing full-service exercise equipment to Apple employees, it includes treadmills, weightlifting machines, and more.
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Parking Garage
Last but not least, beneath the campus is a parking garage. Have fun guessing who drives these flashy cars parked there.
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Special thanks to our web host uswebhosting.com.
85 thoughts on “Inside Apple HQ”
Android is going to destroy Apple. It was a great run but the downwards slide is about to begin.
Sure it is. Any minute now.
Shall we all hold our breath?
I would disagree.
android sucks and you know it
Of course it is. “They do not bring enough culture to their products”. Android was made by Google to be only “ads publishing platform”. Nothing more.
Yeah, and this really is the year Linux becomes mainstream.
/sarcasm
here we go again. there is always one fanboi to start this trash again. I’ll settle this. look, depending on what time you check, Apple is the most valuable company in the word, other times it is the second. Even android somehow over took Apple in over all sales and etc, Apple isnt going anywhere for a LONG time, simply because of the sheer value of the company and amount of money they have amassed. so, please, stop this fanboyism and just enjoy the damn articles.
Invincibility has been said about a lot of companies – and no one has attained it – as Jim Cramer of Mad Money commented: “Apple without Steve Jobs is just another tech company.”
Enjoy the ride while it lasts – but it will eventually end – sooner or later.
And here we are, years after your comment, and how wrong you are.
sour grapes
And here we are, years after your comment, and how wrong you are.
By the way, First (Well, second now)!!!
more like 5th you spastic.
These pictures are taken at Existing Apple HQ. We will see the new Apple HQ next few years – Donut shape which is now under construction.
If you look at the “meeting room” photo with Steve Jobs in it you can see there is more industrial equipment behind it. Very likely another portion of Ive’s design lab.
Good catch! I think you’re right.
Looks just like it – the apple store is open to the public where you can get clothes – no pics of the ebc?
I am curious how many visitors other than family get to visit. They have the joint on lockdown so any tour you do get will likely be pretty limited.
no siri in the men’s room eh
The second “Apple HQ meeting room” photo was a huge eyewink considering I thought these were all super recent. Almost a death-cheat reality uncovering.
bacon!
Great pictures! Thank you for sharing them! It’s nice to know where all of the state-of-the-art products we love are designed! It’s just like I imagined! 🙂
Surprised they don’t use the most updated iMacs in the reception area… those are a good 4-5 years old, right?
Some of these photos are probably that old, so I doubt the reception area currently uses iMacs that old.
If they are still using those iMacs and the reception does look that dated, it is no wonder that they are building a new campus. I kind of imagined that the inside of the campus would be super modern, even if some of the buildings are a bit old.
The photos kind of make the whole place seem a bit depressing.
It makes me smile every time I see Ive. How can one single man come up with so many product designs?
he doesn’t, not alone at least. He has a team of designers pitching concepts at him everyday. He just picks and chooses ideas until they are whittled and refined down to what you see in the stores.
Most of these are public areas that are not strictly off limits. A few are off limits. Very nice collection of photos. If you’ve been there, you’ll recognize things. BTW, the campus cafeteria is called “Cafe Macs”, is huge, everything under the sun is cooked fresh and served, and it’s mega cheap. I got a gourmet dinner for $8. And walking through Cafe Macs, you’ll hear almost every language in the world spoken.
Nice! Great collection, you missed one really good one from INSIDE apple’s design labs.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AVFzh8ZuC1g/S_0t39zWjvI/AAAAAAAAAEg/8O2I9DyQtXg/s320/b.jpg
From https://hannahshipleys.blogspot.com/2010/05/this-was-only-image-i-was-able-to-take.html
In the Apple HQ meeting room photo, I’m glad to see they have a clone of Jonny Ive off to the left. Pity they didn’t clone Steve…
i find the halls of apple very cheesy and not stylish at all! doesnt fit the imag3e at all. should be redone!!!! hope norman foster makes it better. probably should have given it to clive wilkonson who does all the ad agencies like chiat day and stuff. facebook hq look s more cool than this. needs graffitti needs to be young fresh and dynamic! it looks like a middle age spa–spanish style tuscan colors! absolutely pathetic!!!!!
I am SO glad you are not In charge of designing anything apple related.
It’s rather boring really, especially when you consider Google and Facebook.
That fitness room is fake. It’s just a digital mockup made by some company selling fitness hardware.
Anything’s possible. The website where I found it made it sound like the real thing. But it’s not like Apple will verify the authenticity of any of these photos for us. 😉
The fitness room is most definitely not fake. Been there.
It’s not in the “HQ” campus, though. Neither are some of the other pictures. A couple of these are very questionably sourced.
Look real … if Steve Jobs find out will close down the Apple Gazette 🙂
Well, he’s dead, so I don’t think that’s about to happen.
I suppose Rec Room could be short for Recreational Room. Or?
Rear-Ends’ Convention Room. Obvious really.
Sorry to break it to you, but, the picture with Ive holding the MacBook Pro, is not in his design center. It’s in the Reliability Lab. The machines behind him, are used to test devices in extreme conditions.
They are CNC Milling machines, not reliability testing machines. Look at the machine over in the right hand corner you can see the spindle of the machine and you can see the round tool holder turrets at the top of the other machines, like wise are the machines where Ive is with Jobs etc. They are very clean workshops though.
P.s. I program and run CNC milling machines like these.
The last one isnt really that rare, its a screenshot from the documentary ‘Objectified’, where you can see a lot more footage from ‘down there’…
That photo of Ive at the end is cut from the documentary “Objectified” (about industrial design).
very cool. Thanks
Employees aren’t allowed to wander the halls? Only “senior staff members”? Doesn’t sound like a pleasant place to work…
The antenna testing lab photos became available to the public on Apple’s website shortly after the release of iPhone 4.
https://www.apple.com/lae/antenna/
BTW, the only thing infamous about the so-called antennagate affair was the silliness of the media. There was no unusual problem with the antennas. Gizmodo was angry about being busted for receiving stolen materials.
apple
Almost all posted are rather old.
(1) The restroom signs – They were most likely taken at CafeMac & Town Hall areas. Rest of the campus’s restrooms sign are nothing like that.
(2) Outside Town Hall area – Nowsaday, there is no reception area and there are no sofa there anymore.
Actually every bathroom on the infinite loop looks like this.
You fan boys are sad. There is no secret underground layer, simply offices like the rest of the world. Why do you guys get off on stuff like this?…..seriously…why?
Go back to your mom’s basement Dr. Sad..
well Mr sad it appears that you probably never owned an APPLE product ever.which explains the “name”(fits you though) and your i-don’t-have-one-so-its-bad AND everyone-loves-it-i-have-to-hate-it attitudes.My advice?
get an apple device.
thus get a life.
people like you are not anything but mighty jealous of the company.well,the grapes are sour for you after all.
I’d love to see the QuickTime VR files of the campus in this gallery from the old Mac OS 8 installation CDs they were always cool to look at
We’d be happy to post them. Any idea where one might find them today?
I have two qtvr files @ https://www.gekko.be/_downloads/
– https://www.gekko.be/_downloads/Apple_Tour.mov
– https://www.gekko.be/_downloads/Apple_Icon_Garden.mov
Wow cool! I’d love to visit the place one day. The Building from the outside just looks incredible. Must be a hell of a place to work.
Pretty cool article! Interesting photos!
Looks very much like any ordinary institution, in fact reminds me a lot of elementary school, with requirements of hall passes to get along. Kinda disappointing, and takes away from the illusion that Apple has figured out a way to harness creativity by having modified the architecture and structure.
Wow! So nice
How many computer students would like to study or work in this wonderful place?Contragulations, Apple!That`s a beautiful work.
very nice pics.
thanks for sharing.
Awesome compilation and a great new addition of photos! It is wonderful to see how the company you admire works and feels inside.
Thanks guys!
The photo named “Apple HQ Meeting Room” is actually a classroom and the people you see are at their first day employee orientation class.
Really… Wow, that’s awesome. Thanks for the info, Mike. A future update to this page will reflect this new information.
Hi,
Does anyone know if the Apple Company Store is open on public holidays? Specifically Labour Day?
Thanks.
while I’m proud of apple’s achievement, I think it’s a bad thing that they take 30% out of their iTune store items and that it’s really bad for an apple developer to pay developer license even when they’re not selling an app yet.. This pissed me off, because apple is already a really big company, and yet they keep taking from poor people like us.. Isn’t it time for apple to give back?? I just hate them sometimes… With all their glowing products, and yet a 3rd world people like me still live in a slump..
the purity of rooms design is obsessive, amazing!!!!
The one machine in the Apple design labs before the slabs is a battery cell creator. Remember from the old MacBook video where they showed how they made it?
The Beetles??? Who are they? Never heard of them 😉
Ah, crud. Did I really type that?
very nice!!
Amazing…………
Muito legal!
Thank you for these lovely pictures 🙂
hello,
I would like info on opening and operating an apple store in Africa. Could you help me please?
I’m afraid Apple doesn’t offer franchises for its retail locations. All Apple Stores are owned and operated directly by Apple Inc.
nice pics apple secrecy is too old
Awesome
Some clarifications based on my visits to the public areas of Apple’s campus over the years:
The picture labeled “IL4 lobby” is just the IL1 lobby again. IL4 shows up later in the set and is quite different.
The “miniature museum” with the campus model and old computers was in the IL4 lobby, on the courtyard side of the glass security wall (which is in the background of the second shot) near the entrance to Caffe Macs. I saw these during visits in 1999 and 2000, but they’re long since gone now.
The third and fourth images under “Hallway Sights” are of the IL3 atrium and reception desk.
The four images from Rehan Mehta are of the IL4 atrium as it exists today. The second image is what you see not long after you enter from Infinite Loop. Look left and you’ll see the Steve Jobs quote. Back in the second image, you can see the security glass straight ahead toward the courtyard. There’s no reception desk in this foyer, but signs indicate there’s one up those stairs on the left. You can see past the glass that there’s a poster on the left wall — this is the Steve Jobs poster in the third image, beyond which is the entrance to Caffe Macs. Opposite this poster is the one in the fourth image.
Some of the pictures under “Room & Door Signs” must be pretty old. During my visits 10-14 years ago, signs with the old Susan Kare bitmap icons were still everywhere, but on my more recent visits almost all have been replaced. The bathroom signs in particular are the same generic icons you see everywhere now. Pity.
The “Outside Town Hall” pictures depict the same area as the Rehan Mehta series earlier, but they’re a bit older. The second of these is from closer to the outside entrance, letting you see the curved wall of Town Hall — the similar image from Rehan Mehta is from twenty feet or so forward, so you don’t see that wall. The textured wall on the left has been replaced with the Steve Jobs quote, and the reception desk has moved upstairs.
Wow, thanks for the great info, Rick! I’ll incorporate your details into an upcoming update to this page. Thanks again!!
Amazing Pics. How did I miss this all these day? Great Job!
Nice to meet you, I’m Cassandra, and interested to discover and explore more on your Apple Executive Briefing that centre at :
Cupertino, New York, Chicago, Paris, London, Munich, Beijing and Sydney.
Who should l liaises with for the Apple Executive Briefing?
Any email address for me to write in
Appreciated your reply.
Thanks,
Cass