“To create the newest Apple store to sell iPhones, smartwatches and other modern gadgetry, Apple took a look back at the 1920s,” Anick Jesdanun and Barbara Ortutay report for The Associated Press. “”
“The new store on New York’s Upper East Side occupies part of a Beaux Arts building that originally housed the U.S. Mortgage & Trust bank,” Jesdanun and Ortutay report. “Apple sought to restore some of the building’s old grandeur by reproducing the original chandeliers seen in old photographs, restoring marble floors and pilasters and turning a bank vault into a VIP showroom.”
“Apple has its share of stores that try to blend into original, classical architecture, though most are in Europe, where such buildings are more prevalent. The store in New York’s Grand Central train station sits at the top of a marble staircase. The one across the street from Paris’s Opera House greets customers with mosaic floor tiles. The Brisbane, Australia, store is in a building that served as an Allied military headquarters during World War II,” Jesdanun and Ortutay report. “Although designing stores individually costs more, there’s payoff in ‘a level of excitement, engagement and interest from consumers,’ said Michael Stephenson, associate strategy director at Fitch, a branding and design consultancy. Apple isn’t saying how much it’s spending.”
Read more, and see the photos, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Enjoy it, Upper East Side – those of you not filing lawsuits against it, that is. No Apple Store for you!
SEE ALSO:
Manhattan residents organize protest over future Apple Retail Store – February 23, 2015
Android owners don’t know they’re Android owners. Ask them what brand of phone they have and theyl say AT&T, Verizon etc.
That is sad.
That also goes to show how much thought they put into picking a phone. Between zero and 1 minute.
Two guys I work with just got new iPhone 6 models after having Android clunkers. They both poo-poo’d Apple products for a long time, and now they can’t believe how much better they are. I love happy endings!
Beautiful building. Many attractive architectural details while still remaining clean and purposeful. Almost like Apple’s software interfaces used to be…. now they are just flat gray.
I must say I have tried to make the adjustment but still am annoyed by buttons and text that are indistinguishable. Intuitions and expectations developed since 2008 have been thwarted. I hope the designers are a little ashamed, and will come back around in the next OS releases.