“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!

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Manhattan residents organize protest over future Apple Retail Store – February 23, 2015