Walking on those glass stairs was absolutely scary, hearing about how much they cost, and the fact that it was glass played tricks with your mind. “It was also the first time to get a look at the glass staircase, which was the first ever installed. My friend Chris, who camped out with me, had a feeling it was going to around that week as Macworld New York was that week.”Ĭhris remembers his first trip upstairs, where he snapped a photo of Steve Jobs near the store’s Theater. If I recall correctly, the guy who was ‘first’ was also first for the Tysons Corner store. “There was a hearty group of about fifteen to twenty (myself included) that stayed up all night. ![]() “I’m old enough to remember ‘camping out’ to get concert tickets and such, and it had a bit of that feel,” Chris says. After a few dozen stores in malls, Apple was ready for a flagship location in a historic post office building. ![]() “The atmosphere was unlike anything I had experienced before.” Chris Ptacek camped out for the grand opening of Apple SoHo, New York City’s first Apple Store. The stories that follow catalog the enduring art of Apple Store celebrations over the past twenty years. They celebrate the tools and people that inspire us to do our best work. They provide opportunities for online friends to finally meet up. They connect like minds and unlock new perspectives. Long after customers experienced an Apple Store for the first time, new store opening events and product launches continue to draw crowds because they bring together the best of the Apple community. New versions of Mac OS X became World Premiere events. New products brought opening day lines back to stores that opened long ago. They grew, often stretching around the block or snaking through mall corridors. Lining up to be the first inside an Apple Store was as much about celebrating a reinvigorated Apple as it was about the store itself.īut then a funny thing happened. The iMac was a hit, Mac OS X had just been released, and soon there would be a better way to get hands-on with the latest products. In May 2001, Mac users had a reason to celebrate. Before the Genius Bar: Behind the retail designs that paved the way for 20 years of Apple Stores.Revisit the world’s first Apple Store as it appeared 20 years ago with augmented reality.Read more feature stories and special content at the links below. □ This is part one of a four-part series celebrating twenty years of Apple Stores. What started at two malls in Tysons Corner, Virginia and Glendale, California became a tradition spanning two decades, generations of customers, and more than five hundred new stores. The logo was relocated to one of the slab-like stone columns, but with Apple's signature design-sense permeating the building, a logo is hardly necessary.Twenty years ago this week, Apple opened its first brick and mortar retail stores to applause, cheering, and seemingly endless lines of smiling faces. From above, the roof resembles a MacBook the effect would have been more pronounced, but Apple decided to remove its logo from the roof after installing a mockup last month. The clear glass walls are laminated to provide some structural support (similar to his smaller Norman Foster Foundation in Madrid) for the ultra-thin carbon-fiber roof, which is held up primarily by four columns. Like Foster's design of Apple Campus 2 and other flagship stores he has designed for the company, Apple Michigan Avenue is a tour-de-force of lightness and transparency. Tiered seating at the upper level works toward the intention of the store becoming "a gathering place for the local community" and facilitating "year-round Today at Apple programming." ![]() Stairs both inside and outside of the building's glass walls connect the plaza and riverwalk levels. Norman Foster's design for the Apple store steps down from one story at the plaza to the equivalent of three stories adjacent to the riverwalk. During his administration he has completed a stretch of the Chicago Riverwalk and is now seeing projects like the Apple Michigan Avenue and the relocation of the Chicago Architecture Foundation directly across the river from Apple.Īpple Michigan Avenue is located at the south edge of Pioneer Court, a large plaza next to the iconic Chicago Tribune Tower. The flagship store's location on a riverwalk just steps from the Michigan Avenue Bridge reinforces the increasing importance of the Chicago River during the tenure of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Sporting a slender wood-lined roof, highly transparent glass walls on four sides, and a cascading riverfront site, the new store is a much heftier architectural statement than its predecessor a few blocks up Michigan Avenue.
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