“When you get your first glance at the Apple logo cut into the Indiana limestone facade of the new Apple Computer store on Michigan Avenue, you might just gag. Oh no! Doesn’t the storefront look like a supersize version of an Apple laptop? Didn’t we already get hit with brand overkill at the Michigan Avenue Disney Store, where the facade is plastered with endless Mickey Mouse logos,” asks Blair Kamin architecture critic for The Chicago Tribune.
“But a closer look reveals the Apple store, which opened Friday, to be a mostly welcome addition to North Michigan Avenue. Its crisp, skylit interior, which features a spectacular staircase made almost entirely of glass, is a luminous cathedral of computing. And the exterior? Well, despite the offending presence of the logo, it’s a decent neighbor — restrained, skillfully handled, not exactly a prizewinner, but by no means a visual disaster,” write Kamin.
Regarding the rather large Apple logo punched through the store’s front facade, Kamin writes, “You get the feeling that Apple ordered up the logo to send a message. A few years ago, people were writing off Apple. Now, though, the company’s rebounding. Having its logo punched into a stone facade — a traditional symbol of permanence — is a way for Apple and Steve Jobs, its chief executive officer, to say: ‘We’re here to stay. Come buy a Power Mac.’ …All things considered, the architects have handled the tension between calling out the brand and creating a sense of place pretty well.
Full article here.