Apple Inc. is one of the largest employers in Northern California, but its employees are scattered around in an amalgam of leased office buildings. Now, a gigantic, circular building is taking shape in the city of Cupertino to unite some of those employees.

Nicknamed the spaceship campus by late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, the structure will house 12,000 to 15,000 employees depending on various estimates. The "mothership," if you will, is going to be a marvel of modern engineering.

Jobs was so proud of the new HQ that he introduced it to the Cupertino City Council in his last public appearance. A quote from Jobs about the building, as published in his biography, is full of pride.

"It's like a spaceship has landed," he said. A few moments later he added, "I think we have a shot at building the best office building in the world."

Similarly, Jobs also discussed how the building would be the object of scholarly desire.

"We have a shot at building the best office building in the world. I really do think that architecture students will come here to see it," said Jobs. 

Whether it will be the best office building in the world or not, it certainly is going to be revolutionary. In an effort to maximize space, the building is being constructed on top of a subterranean parking garage. While that's probably really difficult to achieve from a construction and engineering perspective just, imagine how cool it would be to park your car in the shade: no more burning hot leather seats!

The sprawling campus will also house a 120,000-square-foot auditorium to be used for product unveilings. Currently, Apple holds all of its big unveilings during special Keynote addresses or alongside annual events like WWDC in San Francisco.

The "mothership" will be able to nearly power itself due to 650,000 square feet of solar panels and fuel cell tech, Tech Crunch reported. The exterior will also be made up of curved, seamless glass. That's never been done before and is extremely expensive.

But unfortunately, the set completion date has been pushed back until 2016; it was originally scheduled to open sometime in 2015. With the delay, cost overruns have plagued the project as well. Therefore, the initial budget of $3 billion has been upped to $5 billion.

Are you impressed with the scope and design of Apple's soon-to-be mega office? Let us know in the comments section below.