“The project prepared by Shay Levanon and Amir Levanon for the corporate office of Apple in Cupertino is a very impressive piece of work. The approach is at such a comprehensive level, that it is hard to believe that Mr. Shay and Mr. Amir are students in the bachelor program of architecture. Congratulations to both of them, as well as their teacher, Professor Hillel Schocken. Even without comparing this project to the very suburban and over- scaled proposal for Cupertino by Foster + Partners, one can easily observe the excellent qualities of this project. It is a rational and common-sense response to a real challenge - how to incorporate an office campus of a world famous company within the context of a sprawling suburb. As I have argued before, the Foster plan missed an opportunity to correct past mistakes in the way the region grew, and to infuse sprawling Cupertino with a piece of real urbanism. Shay and Amir’s project is doing exactly this: it creates simple and predictable urban fabric, but which is a decent, walkable human environment, instead of a spaceship isolated and disconnected from its surrounding. I was very impressed by the special care and attention given to every step of the analysis, research and design process. Closely following the principles of the New Urbanism for creating walkable, connected and complete communities, the step-by-step methodology of the Sprawl Repair Manual, and the regulatory framework of the SmartCode, Shay and Amir showed deep understanding of the philosophy and technique of good place-making. In addition, they came up with many creative ideas of how Apple can become a real positive force in the community of Cupertino, not only through excellent urbanism but also through innovative funding, branding and implementation.” - Galina Tahchieva