Apple Park 911 Transcripts Reveal Perils Of Glass Walls

When people use metaphors about glass houses, they probably never imagined someone would take the structure literally. Apple, however, may be on the verge of creating a new metaphor thanks to its Apple Park campus. Famous for its striking design, the "spaceship" building is now becoming infamous for incidents of employees walking into the building's glass panes and injuring themselves. The San Francisco Chronicle got hold of 911 transcripts for three reported incidents, revealing some minor details about the risks of working at Apple's glass house.

It would be amusing if it were not so serious. And, yes, there will be no shortage of jokes around these incidents or Apple's stubbornness to stick to its design decisions. And while some might point the finger at the distracted employees, such types of employees are only too common, especially in the tech business, to make these extremely rare cases.

And it can get very serious. One 911 call reveals that the injury was bad enough that on-site personnel thought the patient would require stitches. By the time of the third incident, also the least serious one, it seems that Apple Park employees themselves were already keenly aware of how "silly" their accidents were.

Dispatcher: ...so tell me exactly what happened.

Caller: We had an individual who ran into a glass wall pane and they hit their head. They have a small cut on their head and they are bleeding, slightly disoriented. We have on site security with them right now.

But it's not exactly so silly nor so trivial. Reports claim that Apple wasn't at all ignorant of the potential problems the Apple Park's design might cause. It was, however, probably too late for Apple to change course. The rest, as they say, is history.

It's unclear whether Apple is violating any building laws since such laws probably never had this specific situation in mind. The company did comply with safety regulations to get city approval, but that might not have been enough to protect its employees from glass panes and themselves.

SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle