Here’s Why Apple Is Building a Wooden Barn at Its New Campus

Of all the things you’d expect Apple to be building at its new high-tech and futuristic campus, a wooden barn probably isn’t one of them. But, lo and behold, such a barn is part of the ongoing construction at Apple Park.

The building in question is actually the Glendenning Barn, a Cupertino historic landmark, which has been on the property long before Apple bought the land. After taking over the site, Apple pledged to carefully disassemble the barn and relocate it to another location on the campus, promising to faithfully recreate it as close as to the original as possible, according to a 2014 story by the San Jose Mercury News. As seen in a recent 4K video uploaded by YouTuber and drone videographer Matthew Roberts, Apple has indeed completely reassembled the barn as of July. You can see the completed barn in the video below at around the 2:45-minute mark.

Originally built in 1916 — when most of the surrounding area was farmland — the historic barn has survived quite a few ownership changes. Most recently, it was used by the previous owners of the site, Hewlett-Packard, as a place for employees to get together and have picnics and beer bashes, according to Business Insider. When a former Cupertino mayor asked CEO Tim Cook about the building, Cook assured him that they would carefully take it apart, relocate it, and reconstruct it. Apple will reportedly keep sports and landscaping equipment in the barn, though its value is obviously more of a piece of history than a storage space. And it certainly shows the amazing transformation of Silicon Valley from simple farmland to the center of the global tech industry.

The barn stands in stark contrast to some of the more high-tech structures at Apple Park, including the large “spaceship” headquarters. Although workers seem to be wrapping up the barn’s reconstruction, other work is still ongoing at the new Apple campus. Roberts’ video shows construction underway on the circular “spaceship” building, the Steve Jobs Theater, the visitor center, and the overall landscaping — including a nearly complete man-made pond. Some Apple employees began moving to the new facility in April, a process slated to take six months even as construction continues.

It’s worth noting that this may be one of the last drone flyover videos of Apple Park. While Roberts and other drone pilots have consistently documented construction progress at the new campus, Apple has recently hired security forces to crack down on drone flyovers at the site, according to several sources, including AppleInsider and YouTube channel DroneOneMedia. While Apple Park isn’t currently registered with the Federal Aviation Administration as a no-fly zone, that certainly could change in the future — and, judging by the security crackdown, it’s likely to.