Apple staff make 911 calls after walking into walls at firm’s new HQ

Apple’s futuristic new headquarters in Cupertino, California, may be one of the most advanced buildings in the world but the company’s employees keep walking into the office’s many glass walls and doorways.

Audio files obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle – and reportedly supplied by 911 operators earlier this year – reveal that three employees working at Apple Park in the first week of January called the emergency services after walking into glass walls.

In one call, dated 2 January, an Apple employee told the emergency services that a colleague had run into a glass wall pane and hit his head.

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The caller said the man had a small cut to his head as a result of this and was “bleeding” and “slightly disoriented”.

Later that day, another employee rang 911 and told the operator that another colleague had cut his eyebrow after walking into a glass window.

The next day, a third employee needed medical attention after walking into a glass door while trying to leave the building, the Chronicle reports.

Apple Park’s glass-filled design was the brainchild of Steve Jobs, The Daily Telegraph reports. The Apple founder, who died in 2011, wanted to give workers and visitors the impression of being “immersed in their natural surroundings”

The glass walls and doors are designed to “appear invisible”, the newspaper says. The panels are smear-proof and positioned in a way that means reflections are almost non-existent.

Employees expressed concerns over the glass walls when Apple Park opened last April, says Bloomberg. To help identify doors they even left post-it notes on panels.

But the news site says the notes were taken down as “they detracted from the building’s design”.