(Newser) – It turns out applying the same design principles used to make a smartphone to a 2.8 million-square-foot building can make for a truly bizarre construction experience. Reuters reports Apple's new headquarters, the creatively named Apple Campus 2, is Steve Jobs' final project for the company he co-founded. Fittingly, it bears his notorious fixation on the tiniest details, "from the arrangement of electrical wiring to the finish of a hidden pipe." The new campus in Cupertino, California, was announced back in 2011 and was supposed to open in 2015. But the opening has repeatedly been pushed back—employees are maybe moving in this spring—due in part to Apple's exacting standards for every little thing.

Apple dictated that no pipes or vents could be reflected in the curved glass walls of the main building. There were also more than 30 pages of guidelines for the use of wood. The building's concrete ceiling panels had to look flawless—even on the side that would never be seen. Apple spent more than 18 months trying to figure out the perfect shape for a door handle, and a fire department representative estimates he went to 15 meetings just on signage (Apple wanted simple Apple-style signage; the fire department wanted signs that actually helped people get out of a burning building). One architect who worked on the project says Apple is being "faithful" to its design principles, though it may have cost the company some general contractors. Read the full story here. (Read more Apple stories.)

