Apple's New Corporate HQ - Spaceship or Doughnut

The available renderings of Apple's planned new corporate office building in Cupertino are drawing some interesting criticisms and comparisons.

All the descriptions I have read so far about the building ring true to me - it is kind of like a spaceship, but sort of like a giant doughnut, yet it also reminds you of a new-fangled Pentagon (an oddly accurate comparison since it is actually a giant circle).

In the New Yorker, Paul Goldberger ponders whether this could be a sign that Apple has finally "jumped the shark" (though in a corporate-decline way, not in a Happy Days-will-be-a-crappy-TV-show-from-now-on way). His argument is that overly-grandiose office buildings have indicated in the past that a company has lost touch with reality (and ultimately and fatally with its own consumer base). I somehow doubt that's the case with Apple, makers of the most phenomenal electronic adult toys ever (get your mind out of the gutter!), but perhaps the next decade will prove me wrong.

Regardless, the building design definitely aspires to be something we've never seen before - which could be something revolutionary (think iPad) or something whose time should never have come (think Sarah Palin's addition to the 2008 Republican ticket).  

Find daily blog posts from Jeff McKown at http://thewaythingsturn.blogspot.com/.