From above, Cornings headquarters in upstate New York looks like a Space Invaders alien: Designed by architect Kevin Roche in the early 90s, the structure fans out in staggered blocks. From the ground, though, the tinted windows and extended eaves make the building look more like a glossy, futuristic Japanese palace.
The office of Wendell Weeks, Cornings CEO, is on the second floor, looking out onto the Chemung River. It was here that Steve Jobs gave the 53-year-old Weeks a seemingly impossible task: Make millions of square feet of ultrathin, ultrastrong glass that didnt yet exist. Oh, and do it in six months. The story of their collaborationincluding Jobs attempt to lecture Weeks on the principles of glass and his insistence that such a feat could be accomplishedis well known. How Corning actually pulled it off is not.
