Hearst Tower designer Norman Foster to craft 'Apple City'

Apple enlisted famed British Architect Norman Foster, the man behind buildings like 'The Gherkin' in London and the 'Hearst Tower' in New York, to design a new home for Apple in the recently purchased land from HP.

Spanish paper ElEconomista reported that Apple's new facility will be called Apple City and will be structured after Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. The report states that the futurist building will host an underground tunnel that will connect the two establishments, leaving the upper portion free for creating a green environ. The building will house engineers and R&D facility and will use renewable energy sources.

The Masdar project, which is being designed by Foster in Abu Dhabi, will be a city which will entirely run on solar energy and renewable sources. The city is designed to accommodate 50,000 people at a cost of around $22 billion. The city will be connected with its own rapid transit system and use of cars will be banned in the city.

The Hearst Tower in New York City is the first green building in New York City with 85 percent of the building using structural steel containing recycled material. The building uses heat conducive limestone and Polyethylene tubing to regulate temperature.

To accommodate growth the expanding Cupertino Company, Apple, acquired about 100 acres of nearby facilities around its premises in Cupertino for around $300 million from HP. Apple currently occupies 57 buildings in Cupertino. The land acquisition made Apple the largest landowner in Cupertino.