January 28, 1978: Apple Computer occupies its first purpose-built office, giving the company a bespoke business center to house its growing operations.
A full 15 years before One Infinite Loop, and almost 40 before Apple Park’s stunning “spaceship” HQ landed, 10260 Bandley Drive — also known as “Bandley 1” — will be the first purpose-built, permanent headquarters for the fledgling company.
Bandley 1: The original Apple HQ
According to Silicon Valley folklore, Apple’s first headquarters sprung up in Steve Jobs’ parents’ garage, located at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California. However, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says very little work actually took place at the legendary location.
“We didn’t do any design there, no breadboarding, no prototyping, no product planning. We didn’t do any manufacturing there,” he once said. .”
After growing out of the garage and officially forming a company, Apple moved to 20863 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino, California. (This structure was nicknamed the “Good Earth” building). Finally, in early 1978—one year after the launch of the Apple II—the company moved into its first purpose-built headquarters on Bandley Drive in Cupertino.
Inside Bandley 1: A floor plan with room to grow
Photo: Chris Espinosa
As you can see in the image above, sketched in January 1978 by Chris Espinosa (now Apple’s longest-serving employee), the building consisted of four quadrants: marketing/admin, engineering, manufacturing, and a large, empty room with no official use, in each fall at the start.
“Tennis courts?” Espinosa jokingly wrote on the layout. Later, that space became Apple’s first warehouse. (The company eventually leased a building across the street and another next door to grow into.)
The “Advent room” shown on the diagram was a demorum. It housed a $3,000 state-of-the-art projection television to dazzle visitors. Jobs reportedly got his own office because no one wanted to share one with him. Mike Markkula, a pivotal figure in Apple’s early history, got his own because he smoked on the job.
Spanish architecture influenced the design of Bandley 1. Today, the structure looks more like a dreary 1970s office – which is exactly what it was.
Apple’s headquarters are expanding
Apple’s Bandley headquarters eventually grew to include Bandley 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Confusingly, Apple did not name these buildings after their location. Instead, the company named them in the order it acquired them. Bandley 2, for example, sat between Bandley 4 and Bandley 5.
According to the website AppleWorld, the Bandley buildings later housed a law office, the United Systems Technology computer store and the Cupertino Driving School.
