Long, long before the company dreamt of an office building from space, Apple occupied a far more modest compound — so much so that it could be sketched by hand. The floor plans were recently rediscovered.
Chris Espinosa, an OG Apple employee and gifted programmer (his Calculator app remained in use for 15 years) drew this sketch of Apple’s “Bandley 1” office. A hell of a sea change from Steve Jobs’ garage, but still pretty humble for an industry-creating company.
Espinosa, who hadn’t seen his own drawing for three decades, recalled the following:
The building had four quadrants: Marketing/Admin, Engineering, Manufacturing, and a large empty space that we did not know what to do with when we moved in. That’s why it’s labelled “Tennis courts?” Needless to say that within two months it was our warehouse, and within six we had leased a building across the street and the one next door to expand into.
“Advent” was not a religious sanctuary, it was the demo room with the $US3,000 projection TV that we used for demos to Important People.
Interesting that Jobs and Woz are on opposite ends of the building. Even more interesting that Jobs didn’t place himself in the centre of the office, floating in a glass dodecahedron. [Chris Espinosa via Cult of Mac]