Apple submitted a new proposal Apple to the City of Cupertino (California) on Monday for its planned "spaceship" campus. The proposal has been made public at the City of Cupertino web site -- although as I was writing this article, trying to access the site continually resulted in an error message.

The campus "will be extremely green and have beautiful natural surroundings," reports "iPhoneinCanada" (http://macte.ch/QG2So). Six thousand species of trees will adorn the entire campus, as implemented by the senior arborist from Stanford hired for the project.

Located on a former HP property, Apple wants to build a spaceship-looking headquarters that will hold 12,000 employees.According to "TechCrunch" (http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/steve-jobs-cupertino/) key facts about the new Apple campus are:

° The design will include a courtyard in the middle and curved glass all the way around.

° Apple will transform an area that’s 20% landscaping to 80% landscaping by putting most of the building’s parking underground.

° There are 3,700 trees in the area at the moment, Jobs has hired an arborist from Stanford to take the area up to 6,000 trees.

° The plan is to build a four-story high building and four-story parking structure.

° The campus will include an energy center, and natural gas will be the primary source of power, using the grid as backup.

° There will be an auditorium, fitness center and some R & D buildings.

° Apple plans a 40% increase in employees going from 9,500 today to 13, 000 in 2015.

° Apple wants to increase the campus’ space 20% from 2.6 million to 3.1 million square feet.

° Landscaping will increase 60% from 3,700 to 6,000.

° Surface parking will decrease 90% from 9,800 to 1,200 .

° The building footprint will decrease 30% from 1.4 million to 1 million.

° Cafeterias will fit 3,000 people at a sitting.

° The whole building will be designed with the utmost concern for employee safety.

° Apple hopes to break ground next year and move in 2015.

-- Dennis Sellers