Plans for Apple's new ring-shaped Headquarters in Cupertino have been approved by the city planning commission, although the final decision won't be made until May 2014. The extravagant office building was first envisioned by Steve Jobs, who personally sought approval for it prior to his death in 2011. Designed by Foster + Partners, the US$ 5 billion building, which Apple calls "the best office building in the world," is slated for completion in 2016. The "spaceship" will cover 260 thousand square meters and host up to 14 thousand employees. Roughly 260 thousand square meters of office space, corporate fitness facilities, auditoriums and cafeterias that will handle lunch for 3 thousand employees will be enveloped in pricey floor-to-ceiling panes of concave glass from Germany. A 600-seat restaurant surrounded by over 6 thousand trees will boast floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors. Steve Jobs first introduced the new campus project to the city council in mid-2011. Since the first design was unveiled, the project's estimated price has shot up from an initial US$ 3 billion to US$ 5 billion. Apple will begin tearing down 26 buildings on the existing site in June. These excavations expected to last six months will require a 24-hour convoy of trucks, according a former Apple manager.

The much-anticipated Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System just kicked into action in California's Mojave Desert. The 14.5 million square meters facility is the world's largest solar thermal energy plant, and it has the backing of some major players; Google, NRG Energy, Bright Source Energy and Bechtel have all invested in the project, which is constructed on federally-leased public land. The first of Ivanpah's three towers is now feeding energy into the grid, and once the site is fully operational it will produce 392 megawatts - enough to power 140 thousand homes while reducing carbon emissions by 400 thousand tons per year. Ivanpah is comprised of 300 thousand sun-tracking mirrors (heliostats), which surround three, 140 meters towers. The sunlight concentrated from these mirrors heats up water contained within the towers to create super-heated steam which then drives turbines on the site to produce power. The first successfully operating unit will sell power to California's Pacific Gas and Electric, as will Unit 3 when it comes online in the coming months. Unit 2 is also set to come online shortly, and will provide power to Southern California Edison. Construction began on the facility in 2010. Last year we reported , that the outlines of a massive solar thermal power plant-the largest ever-are starting to appear in the wilderness outside of Las Vegas. In March of this year achieved it's first "flux", a crucial test which proved its readiness to begin commercial operation. Tests on September 23 formed Ivanpah's "first sync" which began feeding power into the grid. As John Upton at Grist points out, the project is not without its critics, noting that some "have questioned why a solar plant that uses water would be built in the desert - instead of one that uses photovoltaic panels," while others have been upset by displacement of local wildlife-notably 100 endangered desert tortoises. But the Ivanpah plant still constitutes a major milestone, both globally as the world's largest solar thermal energy plant, and locally for the significant contribution it will make towards California's renewable energy goal of achieving 3,000 MW of solar generating capacity through public utilities and private ownership.

The family home where a young Steve Jobs built the first Apple computer may soon become a protected historical site, reported CNN. The seven-member Los Altos Historical Commission has scheduled a "historic property evaluation" for the single-story, ranch-style house on Monday, September 30. If the designation is ultimately approved, then the house on 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, will have to be preserved. Jobs moved to the house with his foster parents as a 7th grader, and lived there through high school. In the attached garage, he and Steve Wozniak toiled to assemble the first 50 Apple 1 computers. The pair sold them to Paul Terrell's Byte Shop in Mountain View for US$ 500 each. Nine months later, in 1977, Apple Computer Co. was formally established and moved its operations to nearby Cupertino. The living room, three-bedroom, two-bath house with 166.5 square meters total area was built in 1952 and is valued at US$ 1.5 million, according to real-estate website Zillow.

Google Inc. agreed to rent a former shopping mall in Mountain View, California, in the largest Silicon Valley lease deal of the year, according to Bloomberg. The former mall is being renovated into an office complex, with completion scheduled for next year, real estate investment firm Rockwood Capital LLC said in a statement. Rockwood, which has offices in San Francisco and White Plains, New York, owns the former Mayfield Mall in a venture with San Francisco-based Four Corners Properties. Once the renovation is completed, the campus will have more than 46,5 thousand square meters of office space on 11.2 hectares. Rockwood didn't disclose the lease terms, and Caroline Luz, a spokeswoman for the company with Owen Blicksilver Public Relations, declined to comment beyond the statement. Katelin Jabbari, a spokeswoman for Mountain View-based Google, declined to comment on the lease. Mayfield Mall was the first air-conditioned, enclosed shopping mall in Northern California and was previously occupied by stores including J.C. Penney Co. The property, adjacent to the San Antonio Caltrain station, is in an area with shops, restaurants, housing and a planned hotel, Rockwood said. Google, owner of the world's most popular Internet search engine, agreed in July to expand its San Francisco office space at Morgan Stanley's Hills Plaza building in what would be that city's biggest lease transaction of 2013, a person with direct knowledge of the deal said at the time. Google joins Rackspace Hosting Inc. (RAX) in using a former shopping mall for office space. Rackspace, a provider of Web-based computing services, paid US$ 32.7 million for the abandoned Windsor Park Mall in San Antonio and converted it to offices.

Google has been cleaning up existing buildings in cities across the globe, from San Francisco to Berlin, turning them into colorful work and play environments that are the envy of every cubicle worker. But now the company has unveiled plans to build a structure anew as an extension to their current headquarters in Mountain View, California. The corporate giant gave Vanity Fair the scoop on the green-roofed expansion, which was conceived in collaboration with Seattle-based design firm NBBJ. The 102 thousand square meter extension to the existing Googleplex in California will be constructed on an adjacent 170 thousand square meters site and will featured nine bent rectangles linked by bridges and a host of verdant courtyards and pathways. The buildings will be up to four storeys high and will be organized in accordance with employee work patterns. In other words, departments that work well together will be near each other, and there will be the usual communal and social spaces that encourage cooperation and creativity. One bridge will lead to a green roof and outdoor cafe and the entire complex will be heated with radiant flooring. This less energy intensive system will be the largest of its kind in the United States.