Apple employees have only just moved into the new Apple Park headquarters, and there are a few teething problems they’re dealing with in the short term.
One of those? The fact that at least two people have injured themselves walking into the glass walls and doors throughout the sprawling Apple new $5 billion headquarters. While these have only resulted in minor cuts and no hospitalization, a new report suggests it could actually be enough to violate California law by creating an unsafe working environment.
Emergency calls were made
Details of the injuries were shared due to their being serious enough to warrant calls to local emergency services, which can be obtained via public records requests. Apple employees moved in at the start of this year and, on January 2, two employees suffered cuts the head after walking headlong into the glass.
According to MarketWatch, this could be in violation of California laws requiring that, “employees shall be protected against the hazard of walking through glass by barriers or by conspicuous durable markings,” although Apple has not been subjected to any citations yet. If it was, it could be made to pay a fine and take other measures to address the problems.
To be fair to Apple, its new campus — whose creation was supervised by Jony Ive — has thousands of employees. The fact that two have been injured enough to warrant emergency calls is therefore far from signaling a massive problem. Still, for a company that’s always battling between form and function (how things look versus how well they work) it’s definitely a subject for consideration.
Apple loves glass
Apple Park reportedly boasts the world’s largest piece of curved glass as part of its designs. Over 3,000 gigantic curved glass panes have also been used to form the walls on both side of Apple’s four-story campus that will measure more than one mile around. In all, Apple Park uses more than six kilometers of curved glass, in addition to interior glass accessories like doors.
Apple brought in its longtime partner Seele from Germany to make the curved glass panes. Seele also created the glass for the company’s Fifth Ave Apple Store and other flagship Apple Stores around the world.
This isn’t the first time Apple has run into problems due to its love of large glass windows. Recently it agreed to dim the lights of its Chicago flagship Apple Store during fall months due to deadly bird strikes. According to the volunteer group Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, dead birds were found at the Apple Store site, due to their propensity for becoming disoriented due to the store’s lights, before crashing into the glass walls.
You can check out the latest drone flyover video of Apple Park below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “Apple Park employees have already injured themselves walking into glass walls”
Maybe they should take out all the glass and put back bricks, if people are stupid enough to walk into the glass. Problem with people they never want to take responsibility for their actions, always want to blame someone else.
It’s a wonder nobody has sued the roads department cause there are no markings on all the roads and regular on the roads warning that rain makes the road wet and they might have an accident.
Phenomena… there must be a disorienting amount of repeated same-same interior set pieces in matching glass to this type translucent structure. Humans being creatures of habit not to mention frailties could arise when just one set piece varies slightly from one another. There is a learning curve to *new* and architectural responsibility to master its lessons being taught. Some rework, some redesign and a few changes will delineate problematic areas for people. Believe me… Apple can afford it and those are the easy ones. Cultural impact of the structure will take ingenuity, invention and creativity to overcome the horizontal challenges.