9 to 5 Mac has posted, “The best pictures of Apple’s new 67th and Broadway Store you’ll see until [today’s] press day.”
9 to 5 Mac got a bunch of “snaps from the roof of the theater across the street. The new store opens to the general public on Saturday the 14th [at 10am ET].”
“You’ll notice the whole back wall is Genius Bar, one of the biggest we’ve seen,” 9 to 5 Mac reports.
Check out all of the photos, some of the last taken with the “red curtain” still in place, here.
ifoAppleStore reports that last evening, “workers removed the plastic covering over the enormous glass storefront of the Upper West Side (NYC) retail store, revealing a single, stone-walled room lit by ceiling lights at night, and flooded with sunlight during the day. Besides the ground-level space with four rows of display tables, there is spiral glass staircase leading down to a lower level, presumably the same size as the 8,500 square-foot main level. The size and scale of the store, and the amount of stone that was used both eclipse any previous Apple store project. The only stainless steel visible is on the huge backlit Apple logo suspended from the inside ceiling.”
“At night the store is a beacon visible for several blocks, especially for those approaching by car or on foot from the south. The glow of the ceiling lights, the backlit logo and the back-lit wall graphics are brighter than anything on Broadway. As you approach closer, the towering height of the storefront becomes apparent. Once in front of the building, you realize that Apple opted not to create another Boston or Regent Street (London) store, with a mezzanine level,” ifoAppleStore reports. “They took the Scottsdale Quarter (Arizona) store and did it one better—this single space is about two and one-half times the volume of the Scottsdale building, and with a second level hidden away below ground like Fifth Avenue (NYC).”
Full article here.
“Apple said Thursday that it expects to open 40 to 50 new retail locations next year and that it will focus on bigger flagship stores in major cities,” Andrew LaVallee reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“At a media preview of its fourth New York store, this time on the Upper West Side, Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, said the company sees this location, as well as its glass cube on Fifth Avenue and newly opened store at the Louvre in Paris, as ‘significant stores,'” LaVallee reports. “‘Other retailers call them flagship stores. We don’t use that word,’ he said. Significant stores, more of which will open in London, Paris and Shanghai in the spring or early summer next year, put a premium on high-traffic locations and eye-catching architecture. They also tend to be the Cupertino, Calif., company’s top retail revenue generators, he added.”
LaVallee reports, “The Upper West Side store gives a glimpse of what Apple has in mind. Located on Broadway and 67th Street, where a Victoria’s Secret store used to be, its ground-floor stone walls are 45-feet tall, and it features the first-ever glass roof on an Apple store.Nearly 10,000 people submitted job applications, Mr. Johnson said, and about 220 will staff the store.”
Full article here.
Check out the MobileMe Gallery of the new Apple Store Upper West Side here.
Apple Store Upper West Side info, directions, calendar of events, and more here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
I live on the UWS. Anyone know what business occupied the space prior to Apple? Just curious.
Anyone know how that Microsoft store is doing? Any updated photos to show how their foot traffic is, now that they’re not offering free concert tickets?
@ Guy Jones:
I believe it used to be a Victoria’s Secret. I look forward to visiting this store. It looks great.
@ pastrychef, I just checked out this video on youtube with jon4lakers about the Microshaft store. It is a direct ripoff of the store, they even have a concierge. Here is the link
Unlike Microsoft, Apple has taste. Absolutely beautiful.
@ RocknRolla:
Thanks for the link. It was an interesting video to watch. I didn’t notice anyone buying anything.
Now there is a window washers dream! 55 gallon drums of Windex anyone?
Haha same here, the employee’s clap when someone purchase a product. Maybe they had the volume down on the video, because I didn’t here anyone X) I heard that they didn’t even put a store in Redmond(the place the Holy Grail was found /s) lmao
Stunning.
Ten years ago could anyone have guessed?
truly stunning architecture.
does anyone have a link to the architectural firm apple used to design this structure?
Right next to Ollie’s!
😀
That is a stunning design — not so much a store as it is a cathedral to Apple. It had to compete with the 5th Avenue store, and I think it does so rather spectacularly.
Bef Vic Secrets it was Tower Records.
I believe it is the same firm they have used for quite some time – but I can’t recall specifically – sorry.
Wonder if they used LED lighting or are prepared to make the switch? My other concern would be the HVAC system – I would imagine it will take a great deal of energy to keep it cool considering all the glass. Wonder if they have automatic shades to keep the sun loading down in the summer….
@$$$$… Wrong. Tower was a block south at 66th and Broadway. This is across the street from Gracious Home and the big Loew’s Lincoln Square movie theatre.
It’s in my neighborhood. I’ll walk by on my way to the Metropolitan Opera tonight… Leoš Janáček’s “From the House of the Dead”!
I think it was originally a movie theater.
“These Apple retail stores will never be successful. It’s an expensive boondoggle that will cost Apple billions!”
Hee!
I notice you don’t hear the same thing about Microsoft’s stores, even though it’s far more likely to be true. Is it because the media still kisses Microsoft’s butt after all these years, or just because Apple proved the concept could work?
——RM
It’s too bad Los Angeles is not the type of city that has a location for an Apple Store of this magnitude. All of LA’s Apple Stores are inside shopping malls. The “Flagship” LA Apple Store is the one in The Grove, which is an (admittedly higher end) outdoor retail mall in the Fairfax District. But that store is puny, obscure and piss-ant compared to any of the Manhattan Stores, or the new one in Arizona. All the rest of LA’s stores are inside fully enclosed shopping malls, and, outside of the merchandise they sell, the excitement level of any of them never rises above the “meh” level.
And that just sucks.
If the Gap at Hollywood & Highland were to ever leave, that would be the perfect location for an Apple Store. It would also be nice to have one on Sunset Blvd, right where the old Tower Records was. Another location – Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The big problem with LA is parking. Unlike NY where many residents use mass transit, everyone drives in LA. Imagine the parking nightmares on opening day at any of those otherwise great locations.
None of those locations would offer up a building anywhere near as dramatic as that new Manhattan store. I’ve been to Hollywood and Highland many times – nothing more than a glorified shopping mall. Even the Virgin “megastore” inside that complex seemed like going down into a basement or a cave from street level. Now I think Hard Rock Cafe is moving in to the Virgin space even though HRC already has a joint just a couple miles away in Universal CityWalk.
Apple needs a custom built for Apple, flagship building in some new development like LA Live, complete with all glass roof, rather than taking over some traditional hard-roofed retail space originally designed for some clothier like The Gap.