Why Apple's $6 billion 'spaceship' headquarters is injuring workers
The new Apple "spaceship" campus has so much clear glass employees are literally walking into walls.
Apple's $6.5 billion headquarters opened in Cupertino, California at the start of 2018 to house 13,000 employees, but since then emergency services have been called more than three times because people have walked into its clear glass walls, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The paper obtained transcripts of three emergency calls made from the building. Three people suffered head injuries including a middle-aged man who required stitches. Two calls were made on the first day the building opened, January 2, and a third on January 4.
Building inspector Albert Salvador was concerned there could be issues on visiting Apple Park nine months ago. During that visit a contractor walked straight into the glass.
Mr Salvador said "when you clean the windows, you can't even tell some of them are there".
His concerns were echoed by Santa Clara County Fire Department's Dirk Mattern. He added that he also witnessed the contractor walk into a wall when he visited with Mr Salvador.
While the tech giant won't comment on the accidents, an Apple vice president of real estate Dan Whisenhunt said in January that people were bumping into glass but it was a problem they were working on.
Black rectangular stickers were placed on the glass panes to make it easier to notice them before Mr Salvador gave the building a safety tick on December 30. However, he added the building "is safe" and doesn't normally look into people "running into glass".
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Mr Salvador told CBS San Francisco Apple addressed the issue following the accidents by putting small white markers on the glass and since doing this there hadn't been any more calls.
It's not the first time Apple has suffered issues with using clear glass in its building designs either.
In October 2017, the Chicago Tribune reported Apple was facing criticism from wildlife groups. Chicago Bird Collision Monitors said it found dead birds outside the Apple Chicago store after it opened on October 20.
The group blamed the death of the birds on the store's exterior glass walls and night lighting.
Apple spokesman Nick Leahy said the Chicago store would begin to dim its lighting at night to prevent birds from flying into the glass.
