GM + Apple = the Louvre?

[billyblancoNYC]

Apple to build elegant retail store in Manhattan's Midtown
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=853

By Prince Mclean
Published: 12:00 PM EST

Sometime this year Apple Computer is expected to begin renovation and construction efforts on its second New York City-based retail store, set to touch down in central Manhattan.

Advertisement
After months of searching for a feasible location in pricey Midtown, the company has reportedly settled on a lease for a massive retail space in the lower-level concourse of the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue, between 58th and 59th Street.

The GM building, which rests atop an entire city block directly across the street from the Plaza Hotel, is also home to an FAO Schwarz toy store, which moved in fourteen years ago. The building is also just a few strides from the southern tip of Central Park.

Although it's very early in the development stages, sources say Apple will turn the 21,000-square-foot space into a retail store that will 'rival anything seen so far' from the company's retail division.

Specifics are lacking, but one source claims Apple will give the exterior of the store a look similar to the glass Pyramid found in the Louvre's cour Napoléon, only in cube form.

The cost of the venture is expected to be steep. Apple's existing New York-based flagship store, located in Manhattan's SoHo district, reportedly costs the company just over $2 million in rent each year, on top of an initial $5 million in renovation costs.

Insiders believe the GM retail location fetched over $3 million a year.

[AJphx]

Exciting! This sounds like it will be very nice with the glass entance!

[Kris]

March 2, 2005

A Cube in the Land of the Wheel

By DAVID W. DUNLAP (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=DAVID%20W.%20DUNLAP&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=DAVID%20W.%20DUNLAP&inline=nyt-per)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/03/02/nyregion/gm.184.1.583.jpg
A rendering of a glass cube planned as part of the revamping of the plaza of the General Motors Building.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/h.gifaving failed sadly in its emulation of Rockefeller Center, the plaza opposite the Plaza will now try being more like the Louvre.

By fall, a glass cube 32 by 32 by 32 feet will be set like a jumbo gemstone into the middle of the plaza of the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue. From the outside, the cube will appear empty. But inside will be a circular glass stairway and a cylindrical elevator leading to a 25,000-square-foot underground space.

In other words, the cube will function like I. M. Pei's Pyramid in the Cour Napoléon of the Louvre: a crystalline marker, a gateway into a subterranean realm. Only the local version will be more transparent - even the structural framework is to be made of glass - and, this being New York in the year 2005, it will usher visitors not to culture but to retail, almost certainly a much larger version of the Apple Computer store in SoHo.

The plaza itself will be relandscaped. The slightly elevated bosque at the south end, reached by wraparound steps, has already disappeared behind construction barriers. Its twin on the north end is also destined for demolition. The new plaza will be on a single level from 58th to 59th Streets, framed at each corner by low, wide, L-shaped parapets.

Two shallow pools will flank the cube, surrounded by movable chairs, tables, planters and a half-dozen honey locust trees. "There are no obstructions and it gives a commodious public space," said Dan Shannon of Moed de Armas & Shannon, which has redesigned the plaza for Macklowe Properties, the new owners of the G.M. Building.

Amanda M. Burden, the chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, who has made the improvement of public space a key goal of her tenure, said yesterday that the plan was a "tour de force in design that returns the G.M. plaza, really, to the public realm."

This is the second attempt in six years to make an amenity out of a privately owned public space that generated a big development bonus in the 1960's for the G.M. Building - almost 200,000 square feet, roughly seven of its 50 floors - but never quite lived up to the civic side of the bargain.

Originally, the central area was depressed 12 feet below the sidewalk in an apparent and unpersuasive homage to the sunken plaza at Rockefeller Center. It was once dominated by the Autopub restaurant. Writing in The New York Times in 1970, Craig Claiborne said, "The waiters and busboys are decked out in garage mechanic outfits, which may be some grim commentary on some aspects of the service."

When Donald J. Trump and the Conseco insurance company bought the building in 1998, the lower plaza was home to a Houlihan's restaurant and slathered in green artificial turf. Under a plan by Thomas Balsley Associates, a landscape architectural firm, the plaza level was raised higher than the surrounding sidewalks.

"My primary purpose was to close that horrible well," Mr. Trump said yesterday. That he did. He was, however, unable to find a retail tenant for the new space created by decking over the sunken plaza.

Even the elevated plaza had its problems, Ms. Burden said. "It used to drop too many levels in grade," she said. "And then they added the ziggurats and people don't like to go up that high. All the grade changes did not invite vitality."

Mr. Balsley said at the time that his goal was a plaza that "becomes part of the fabric of the city." Indeed, the plaza is often a lively place, with crowds in front of the CBS studio during "The Early Show" or "N.F.L. Today" and streaming into F.A.O. Schwarz.

CBS plans to keep using the plaza, said Michael Bass, senior executive producer for "The Early Show," and is now working out future arrangements. An executive vice president of F.A.O. Schwarz, Kim Richmond, said, "We think that when all the construction is done, it will be quite spectacular."

Apple would not comment. "We have not announced any additional retail locations in New York City at this point," said Katie Cotton, the vice president for corporate communications.

Though the cube will be the most-talked-about element of the renovation, it is not the largest change. That will occur along Madison Avenue, where the base of the structure will be extended outward 10 feet and a recessed public space will be eliminated to create a solid, two-story retail wall behind a new glass facade.

In trying to increase the amount of revenue-generating floor area, Samuel H. Lindenbaum and Robert E. Flahive of the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, representing Macklowe Properties, calculated that the G.M. Building, as built, had 1,464,105 square feet of space, or 53,709 square feet less than would have been permitted under the existing zoning formula.

They reasoned that because each square foot of plaza generated 10 bonus square feet of development, that meant 5,371 square feet of public space was not needed for the building to comply with zoning rules.

They also determined that 19,873 square feet of space in the building had been or would be converted to mechanical use. Because this is not counted as floor area by zoning rules, they explained, Macklowe could build the 8,374-square-foot Madison Avenue extension and the 405-square-foot cube, with room to spare.

Now how does a 32-foot cube yield only 405 feet of floor area? Shouldn't it be 1,024? "When you walk into the cube, you have the elevator and the stairs," Mr. Lindenbaum explained, "but the whole floor is not filled in."

Harry Macklowe, the chairman of Macklowe Properties, bought the G.M. Building in 2003 for $1.4 billion. The architectural firm Gensler is working on the renovation with Moed de Armas & Shannon.

With an evident passion for architecture, Mr. Macklowe thought first of modifying the existing retail entrance with a crescent recalling Norman Foster's Canary Wharf Underground station in London. He solicited ideas from Santiago Calatrava and from Mr. Pei, raising the prospect of a Louvre-inspired design.

As Mr. Shannon recalled, Mr. Pei demurred, saying the Pyramid could not fit on the G.M. plaza. To which Mr. Macklowe answered, "I'm only speaking metaphorically."

Last winter, a 40-foot mockup cube, in scaffolding and scrim, was hastily assembled on the plaza one midnight and just as quickly taken down before dawn. Seeing it helped Mr. Macklowe decide that the actual structure ought to be 32 feet, matching the low-rise base of the building.

To preserve the public spirit of the plaza, Ms. Burden said it would be critical that "the cube itself is the advertising" and that signage be kept to a minimum. Apple typically marks its stores wordlessly, with an apple logo.

This recalls the approach taken a century ago by Tiffany & Company, which saw no need to puts its name on its new store at Fifth Avenue and 37th Street, as long as the Atlas statue was out front.

Asked what sort of commercial message would appear on the cube, Mr. Macklowe said: "Nothing. It's word of mouth."

Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[Kris]

March 7, 2005

Birds and Glass Buildings

To the Editor:

Re "A Cube in the Land of the Wheel: Redefining Public Space at the G.M. Building" (news article, March 2):

Although the redesign of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue seems attractive, it will likely be hazardous to birds, which cannot recognize glass as a solid surface.

Since 1997, New York City Audubon's Project Safe Flight has found more than 4,000 birds that have been killed or injured by flying into glass. The toll includes more than 100 species, 42 percent of which are in decline.

New York City Audubon is raising awareness in the architecture and design community.

We seek opportunities to work with the glass industry to develop a glass that is transparent to humans but visible to birds.

On March 11, architects and conservationists will focus on bird-friendly design at a conference in Chicago.

E. J. McAdams
Executive Director
New York City Audubon
New York, March 2, 2005

Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[pianoman11686]

Not what I'd call breaking news, but an update nonetheless.

From AppleInsider.com:

New photos show progress at Midtown Apple store site

May 09 - 6:00 pm EST Following a series of Macklowe Properties file photos that appeared on internet last month, tipsters have passed along a more recent set of images taken from the construction site of Apple's forthcoming Midtown, Manhattan Apple retail store. The photos reveal the basic structure of the space in the underground concourse of the General Motors building at 767 Fifth Avenue. A sub-basement also appears to be present in the photos, with two adjacent stairwells leading further underground.

Sorry, but I couldn't copy the pics into the post. They have 5 construction pics on this site:
http://www.appleinsider.com/news.php?id=1063

[BrooklynRider]

March 7, 2005

Birds and Glass Buildings

...Since 1997, New York City Audubon's Project Safe Flight has found more than 4,000 birds that have been killed or injured by flying into glass. The toll includes more than 100 species, 42 percent of which are in decline...

They know that if they said "pigeons" no one give a flying rat's *ss.

[kliq6]

Bovis is doing the plaza renovation at the GM buildimg, lets just say they have a "not so par" record on completing projects ontime so this may take sometime

[alex ballard]

Bovis is doing the plaza renovation at the GM buildimg, lets just say they have a "not so par" record on completing projects ontime so this may take sometime


What is with you so down on anything NY?

[kliq6]

i worked for them for years, i should know and they not NY, there Australian run. If you want it built right in NY you go to Turner or Tishman and Structuretone for Interiors

[lofter1]

Sorry, but I couldn't copy the pics into the post. They have 5 construction pics on this site:
http://www.appleinsider.com/news.php?id=1063

Can't seem to get this link to come up.

Hoping that this renovation will be as fantastic as I'm imagining. That plaza has NEVER worked -- and if the Apple store in SoHo is any indication then this addition will really enliven that plaza (plus it will be beautiful, for once!!).

[BrooklynRider]

i worked for them for years, i should know and they not NY, there Australian run. If you want it built right in NY you go to Turner or Tishman and Structuretone for Interiors

Talk about your sour grapes.

Tishman is a class act and, I think, NYC's premier building company.

Turner and Bovis are both publicly owned and rely on volume. However, as a former Bovis employee, you should be well aware of Bovis' New York Regional office. It was started by Peter Lehrer and Genen McGovern, formrly of Morse Diesal in 1982, In 1988, Bovis (a Division of P & O Steamship) bought the firm, name change to Lehrer McGovern Bovis (aka LMB) and over the next four years Bovis shot to the top five CMs in ther city and topped ENR's CM's and At Risk Construction firms in the country. After 1992, they begin pulling away from "at risk" building, although on the Interiors side it is inevitable. In the 1990's Bovis (Now headed by New Yorker, Peter Lehrer) then purchased Schal Associates based in Chicago and McDevitt Street based in Charlotte. From the second half of 1996, through the end of that decade, LMB and McDevitt Street played tug of war for dominance in the company. Although Luther Cochran succeeded Peter Lehrer as head of Bovis, the New York office of Bovis accounted for 60% of domestic revenues and that put the argument to rest.

Also, Peter Lehrer and Gene McGovern really put "Construction Management" on the map, they came in and really created a new kind of industry (and destroyed to some extent all pre-existing fee structures in the industry)

Lend Lease (an Australian Firm) came shopping around 2000. Maintaining the structure under the Bovis plan, they kept Peter Marchetto in place as head of the New York office and he is basically the man running things overall ever since (see aforementioned comment on revenues). Pete is a New Yorker through and through. He started out of college working for Peter and Gene at Morse Diesal and rose through the ranks: Super, APM, PM, AE, VP, EVP to become President. He is still there. So, save you bitter Bovis pill for people who might be less educated.

Tishman, FYI has been in NYC building and construction for over 100 years. They were at the forefront of a lot of "firsts" in construction, including the first use of airconditioning in a commercial building, first use of flourescent lighting in commercial buildings and on and on. They originally were developers builders. In the 1970's they went public, but John Tishman was unhappy with the direction of the company and bought it back. There was a split in the family and that resulted in David Tishman (hope I got "David" right) and Jerry Spier (Tishman cousins) forming Tishman-Speyer (an unrelated company). John Tishman is a legend in this city and Dan Tishman is a pure class act. Additionally, Dan Tishman, along with Jody Durst are at the forefront of Green Building and, not just for publicities sake, Durst and Tishman are both invested and involved in sustainable farming and developing eco smart agriculture. Tishman Realty & Construction Co. Inc under Dan Tishman is one of the top 100 provately held companies and its Tihman HOtel corp isthe nations second largest independent hotelier, owning amoungst other properties - the Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels, the Disney World Hilton, The Haye-Adams in DC, the Chicago Sheraton, The Westin NY, The Westin-Rio Mar in Puerto Rico. They are not "huge" staff-wise, but they are making more money than any other firm in the city and, probably the country (as an overall company).

Turner is a New York Company that is also a public company. They have a good reputation and are easily lumped within a group that includes a Tishman and a Bovis.

Now Structuretone... First, of those four, only Structuretone has been implicated in kick backs and associated with every stereo-type and negative aspect of the industry. To be sure that these are no mere allegations, the CEO and Owner, Donaghy, was convicted, went to jail and is barred from setting foot inside the Structuretone office now run by his idiot son, James. For the record, Jimmy's daddy maintain a "separate" office right outside the firms front door, where all the Structuretone employees "visit" regularly. Structuretone is not a CM - it is a contractor. A good 80% - 85% of thee work is at risk and their revenue numbers are totally inflated. The operation is family. The White family and the Donahy family. The Whites are immensely more sophistcated than the shany Irish Donaghys. John White is the last remnant of respectability that firm will ever have. That being said, between the two family's it would a challenges to pull together one operating brain. That firm is all about payback, kickbacks and low-bidding. The lowball bidding and then run up excessive change orders. They claim st be a $4B firm, yet they still contract to do things like "install an office door".

For someone as educated as you appear to be, take a look around. Not many Structuretone signs around. And, where you do see them, you can be there some crap building going on. They are incredibly disreputable in the industry and the nly reason they survived the scandal that rocked the company is because it is all family run and no one in the industry (i.e. Turner, Bovis, Tishman) would EVER hire anyone from that firm. Donaghy, White, Neary, on and on. They grease the palms that need it and their work is 95% in the interiors sector - the most notoriously crooked of any sector in the industry. They are one of the worst firms with the worst reputations.

I am really kind of shocked by their inclusion.

Skanska, on the otherhand, is a firm that has really taken off in the last 7 or 8 years as have Pavarini McGovern. (Note: Structuretone owned Pavarini, but in 2001 the McGoverns: Gene & Eric - bought into the company and at THAT point it was on the map - as a NY entity it was non-existent - operating primarily out of Connecticut only.)

Tangent complete.

[kliq6]

Since the sale of LMB to Lend Lease, many things include the top personal outside of Pete Marchetto and Jim Abadie have left, and the structrure of the firm is much different.

Sorry of my post offended you Brooklyn, but unless you work for Lend Lease, cant see why you care.

[BrooklynRider]

Since the sale of LMB to Lend Lease, many things include the top personal outside of Pete Marchetto and Jim Abadie have left, and the structrure of the firm is much different.

Sorry of my post offended you Brooklyn, but unless you work for Lend Lease, cant see why you care.

I'm not going to take his too much further into this tangential abyss. I care because I know people who work there and I can personally vouch for the professionalism and standards they adhere to. While you point to who has left, I can point to who has stayed on.

No need to be sorry for what you posted, but no need to question my motives. Why I care or would post what I did is irrelevant. We could just flip that question back and forth a few hundred times. Unless you had an axe to grind with Lend-Lease, I can't imagine why you would make such a post.

You took a swipe a firm you know and I defended a firm I know. They happen to be one and the same. Here we are at an open forum. Next...

[pianoman11686]

lofter1: I just tried using the link and it worked fine, so I hope there aren't any more problems with it.

Law & Order: You really watch that show too much, haha.

Everyone else: Let's stay optimistic about this site being developed on schedule. Apple is investing a heck of a lot of money into one of hundreds of stores, and according to them, it will be their new flagship, replacing the current flagship which I believe is in San Francisco off Union Square. Anyways, the cube structure should be in place by fall, and I imagine they would love to have the store open before the big holiday shopping season begins. It's great news for the plaza, which has lacked vitality for a while. And I'm sure the store will fair a lot better than FAO Schwarz, which I believe was considering closing at some point due to poor profits. This will be a little gem of a building that will definitely earn a unique place in the city.

[BrooklynRider]

Docket number, 00372, charges are; one count murder in the first degree, two counts conspiracy to commit murder. How does the defendent plead? "Not guilty your honor". Peoples application on bail? "People request remand your honor." "Your honor, my client has deep ties to the community and is mourning the loss of his son." "He is charged with murdering that son your honor." Suspect is here by remanded with out bail.

My laugh out loud moment of the morning.

[Fabrizio]

This is one building that should never have been built. After Penn Station, the Park Savoy Hotel was NY´s greatest loss. At least they´re finally covering up that hole...

[Schadenfrau]

FAO Schwartz was closed, but reopened after renovations.

[ryan]

I think the greater FAO Schwartz chain is going out of business, but the store on 5th ave is profitable, so it was purchased and reopened by another holding company? I'm no reliable source on the matter.

[hey19932]

does anybody have any recent pics of this?...it should be completed by now

[kliq6]

its behind schedule, i talked to someone invovled, the cement strike effected it

[Teno]

They've begun the glass cube, we begin to get a sense of scale. How enormous that 32 foot glass cube is going to be.

[Deimos]

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1347

Friday, October 28, 2005
Glass cube assembly begins at site of 5th Ave flagship store

By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 03:00 PM EST
Construction workers last week began to assemble a giant glass cube, which will be set like a jumbo gemstone atop Apple Computer's upcoming flagship retail store in the underground concourse of the General Motors building in Midtown Manhattan.

On Thursday workers operating a crane could be seen lowering several glass panels into place in the middle of the plaza of the GM building at 767 Fifth Avenue, between 58th and 59th Street.

When complete, the 32-foot glass cube will form a stunning gateway to a circular glass staircase and cylindrical elevator leading to an underground 25,000-square-foot Apple retail store.

Apple will reportedly reserve a few thousand square-feet for storage and office space, reducing the usable retail space to about 21,000-square feet -- almost the equivalent to its SoHo flagship retail store, located in southern Manhattan.

In a recent conference call, Apple for the first time acknowledged that it was constructing a giant retail store on 5th Ave. and said it hoped to begin operating out of the location in time for the holiday shopping season.

Sources privy to Apple's plans previously told AppleInsider the 5th Ave. store would rival anything seen from the company's retail division so far.

Apple reportedly began construction of the store in late-February.

http://images.appleinsider.com/images/cubassembly1.jpg

[lofter1]

I think the Apple cube is a great project, and I know that there were previous underground commercial uses below this plaza, but I'm curious ...

When the GM building first went up was it granted a "zoning bonus" for the construction of a public amenity -- the the above-ground plaza -- that allowed additional floors / height?

Or was the GM built to its full height "as of right"?

[ablarc]

lofter, the idea was to populate the city with Seagram buildings. The plazas were thought to be the neatest thing since sliced bread. The result can be seen on 6th Avenue in the forties and fifties, and on Park Avenue.

Occasionally the formula produced a work of art, as in the CBS Building or Seagram, but mostly it just proved once again that the magic is not in the numbers.

That's the problem with zoning in general; it's paint by numbers.

* * *

The modernist idea was that a building was sculpture, so to fully appreciate it as sculpture you had to be able to see it from all sides. That meant being able to walk substantially all the way around it; hence the plazas.

The street? Modernism hated streets, because they were lined with buildings that defined space rather than being objects of sculpture. Corbu reigned supreme; dissolve the streetwall.

The irony of it is that when all the buildings are set back on plazas, as on Sixth Avenue, they inadvertently form a streetwall of sorts anyway. But it's gigantic, so it's OK. Corbu and the modernists liked things to be big and wanted to give you the opportunity to fully drink in their bigness.

It's easy to see the Apple cube as a continuation of that tradition.

[vc10]

Ducking to get out of the way of the photog?

I also want to know what the guy is doing in the lower left of the picture. I was looking at him, then I realized the question mark. I thought he was spitting in the trashcan, but then I just had no idea.

[BigMac]

I also want to know what the guy is doing in the lower left of the picture.

Based on the picture below, he appears to be looking at a newspaper in a vending machine.

http://images.appleinsider.com/images/cubassembly5.jpg

[BrooklynRider]

Looks like someone kicked him in the nads.

[smackfu]

It's kind of got a Mecca look going on right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba

[infoshare]

I look forward to seeing this place. I think the store in Soho is one of the finest interios I have ever seen. Lets see if they can out do themselves with the interiors; there off to a good start with the exterior "cube" concept.

cheers

[ZippyTheChimp]

Intelligencer

Steve Jobs Loves his Big iCube

It’s his; he’s not leaving it here.

By Deborah Schoeneman (http://newyorkmetro.com/nymag/author_8436)

The long-awaited deal for Apple’s sprawling subterranean store in the GM building was recently finalized—but only after landlord Harry Macklowe promised Steve Jobs he could take his big $9 million glass cube with him at the end of the lease. Techno aesthete Jobs personally designed the 32-foot-by-32-foot box that will mark the store’s entrance on the Fifth Avenue plaza (formerly home to a T.G.I.Friday’s). “Steve Jobs felt that he created the cube so he owned it,” says Apple broker Robert Futterman, noting that Macklowe wanted it to stay put. “At the eleventh hour, that was the biggest issue.” Macklowe had aggressively wooed Jobs, flying out to California twice and offering well below market rent of $1,000 per square foot for the 24,000-square-foot store set to open in the spring. At the end of the twenty-year lease, Jobs must replace the cube with a comparable structure before hauling it off. Apple didn’t return calls, and Macklowe declined to comment.



Jobs should drop dead on Nov 29th 2025.

[Deimos]

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0602gm.html

Manhattan Apple store to be first 24/7 location
By Ryan Katz, Senior Editor

February 8, 2006 - Apple's upcoming midtown Manhattan retail store will mark a first for the company as sources report the location will be open 24 hours a day. The store, located in the underground retail plaza of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Street will also be among the first stores to offer customers an iPod Bar.

The 25,000-square-foot store will dwarf Apple's SoHo location and will be capped by a 32-foot glass cube that will stand in front of the building and house the stairs and elevators that will take customers underground to the Apple retail store.

Sources report that construction of the store is on track to be completed in April, with the store expected to open by the end of May.

Meanwhile, Wednesday's edition of Boulder's Daily Camera reports that Apple has leased a 4,900 square-foot location in the Twenty Ninth Street shopping center, just a short drive away from the Flatiron Crossing Mall in Broomfield, CO, where Apple also plans to open a store this year.

[ryan]

Is that our macreator in the comments?

[macreator]

Is that our macreator in the comments?

You caught me :)

I couldn't let someone's comment that the GM building is on 6th Avenue go uncorrected.

I'm really excited about this Apple Store, it will definitely brighten up that spot of Fifth at night with some slick design and it looks like the GM plaza will finally work out as a destination after years of various ill-fated renovations.

Plus, my 3 AM iPod cravings will now be satisfied ;)

[MidtownGuy]

That's what i love- the round-the-clock hours. It should generate some pedestrian traffic on a block that's usually empty at night. With all of the tourists in that area, and businesses as well, this store is going to be a gold mine.

[BigMac]

Sounds good; I see the cube being a big hit with tourists.

[antinimby]

I see a huge demand for IPods at 3:00 AM in the morning . . . :rolleyes:

[lofter1]

The Genius Bar at 3 AM could be interesting ... :cool:

[MidtownGuy]

If the genius bar is staffed all night with the rest of the store, I can guarantee there will be people in there, yes even at 3am. It may not be for ipods, as you say, but have you ever had a tech problem with a mac and tried to get into the store downtown? Hint... they line up eeaarly in the morn. I would go in there at 3am no problem if I needed to. Especially if I had a project due the next day. As a creative professional who makes his living at home on a mac, I'm often up at 3am anyway, and I know I'm not the only one. If there is anyplace this could work, it is in midtown.
They might even schedule late night dj's, who would spin music, for sale as downloads of course.

[macreator]

If the genius bar is staffed all night with the rest of the store, I can guarantee there will be people in there, yes even at 3am. It may not be for ipods, as you say, but have you ever had a tech problem with a mac and tried to get into the store downtown? Hint... they line up eeaarly in the morn. I would go in there at 3am no problem if I needed to. Especially if I had a project due the next day. As a creative professional who makes his living at home on a mac, I'm often up at 3am anyway, and I know I'm not the only one. If there is anyplace this could work, it is in midtown.
They might even schedule late night dj's, who would spin music, for sale as downloads of course.

I agree with you MidtownGuy. There are many times I am up at 2 AM and have a question or need an accessory such as a cable but can't get it.

There are others like me up late at night, I see lights on across the street from me -- one of the things I love about NYC, there are always people up and about.

In addition, just the fact that you won't have to worry about hours at this place will be fantastic.

This store will be a relatively short walk for me and so I am looking forward to it.

I think they said it'll probably open in May.

[Stern]

I agree with you MidtownGuy. There are many times I am up at 2 AM and have a question or need an accessory such as a cable but can't get it.

There are others like me up late at night, I see lights on across the street from me -- one of the things I love about NYC, there are always people up and about.

In addition, just the fact that you won't have to worry about hours at this place will be fantastic.

This store will be a relatively short walk for me and so I am looking forward to it.

I think they said it'll probably open in May.

I've never owned an Apple product, but if the stores open all night and I'm drunk and in the area at 3am, I could definetly see myself forking over the dough for a video ipod.

[lofter1]

LMAO ^^ I'm envisioning post-bar shoppers, inhibitions unchecked, buying up all those Apple goodies. They might be wise to start a Jitney service from various neighborhoods direct to the new Apple mecca.

[Teno]

I've never owned an Apple product...


Now is as good a time as any to try it.

The new Mac's with Intel chips will run OSX, Windows Vista, and Linux.

You have the best of all worlds.

[lofter1]

Jitney service from various neighborhoods direct to the new Apple mecca.
This might attract some business ...

[elfgam]

I hope this starts a trend towards moving NY back to being a truly 24-7 city. Has anyone noticed that since the Guliani years (whom I loved, but still) the city has gradually gotten quieter and quieter in the wee-morning hours? There are almost no 24-hour restaurants anymore and only one 24-hour starbucks -- hell on your typical suburban strip in NJ or Florida even most of the supermarkets are open 24/7.

[infoshare]

I hope this starts a trend towards moving NY back to being a truly 24-7 city. Has anyone noticed that since the Guliani years (whom I loved, but still) the city has gradually gotten quieter and quieter in the wee-morning hours? There are almost no 24-hour restaurants anymore and only one 24-hour starbucks -- hell on your typical suburban strip in NJ or Florida even most of the supermarkets are open 24/7.


Amen, NYc greatest mayor. IMO. I was at the GM building today --- a lot of construction activity,,,,,, many workers on street level...... who knows what was going on below grade.......This store is a work of art, as is the soho store...... I hope to take photos there sooon.;;;;;; seeing this go up today made me feel bettar about that nonsense that happende with the attempt to build in the chelsea/flat iron district. to bad that project got squashed.

cheers

[antinimby]

This is the result of the Quality of Life crackdown campaigns to sanitize the city. It's not the new buildings that people are so quick to blame on.

[MidtownGuy]

When I hear someone say he was NYC's greatest mayor, I want to ask them WHAT planet they are visiting from. More accurately, he was NYC's most DIVISIVE mayor. In fact, I have only ever heard White people say they loved him. Surprise me, tell me you are not white and I will be interested to hear why you thought he was the best NYC mayor ever.

This guy was a jerk, who tried to micromanage everything. Stop trying to revise history. Next you'll be saying Reagan was the greatest President ever.(Another real winner.There's a special place in hell for him too. I hope they have him on slow roast down there.) Just my $.02 for the record.

[infoshare]

In fact, I have only ever heard White people say they loved him. Surprise me, tell me you are not white and I will be interested to hear why you thought he was the best NYC mayor ever.

President ever.(Another real winner.There's a special place in hell for him too. I hope they have him on slow roast down there.) Just my $.02 for the record.

And I did like Reagan. I do not wish to enter into any controversy, mostly because I rather just post some links, photos of architecture with the limited time I have here.

I am not fishing for a debate if I offer an opinion, -- or in this case, support somone elses opinio -- I think he was a good mayor.

So, pardon me while I go locking for more pictures of the GM and apple store. Here is a good link for now - http://www.macklowespace.com/GM_retail/gm_retail.html once on the site click on "fifth avenue - construction progress" some nice photos there.

[macreator]

Who are the tenants in the GM building? Does GM still have a presence there?

[jeffpark]

Who are the tenants in the GM building? Does GM still have a presence there?
the Retail or Office?

the Retail is

FAO Schwarz
Chase
Porsche
Bally
Cbs
Apple

billy macklowe still has 1 Retail space on madison Available
Its on 2 floors its about
5,900 s/f.

[MidtownGuy]

I do not wish to enter into any controversy, mostly because I rather just post some links, photos of architecture with the limited time I have here.

I am not fishing for a debate if I offer an opinion, -- or in this case, support somone elses opinio -- I think he was a good mayor.

I understand, infoshare. In this thread, I would also rather stick to the issue at hand.

However, if an opinion is expressed, in this case as it was about Giuliani, with strong words like "greatest mayor" and "Amen", you can hardly expect it to slip by, uncontested by those who feel the opposite way.
The point is, many of us believe very strongly that there is a big, horrible thing happening in the US. A slippery slope, if you will. Some people do not see it yet, just like the Germans who liked the the trains to run on time. If you allude to it, or any of it's front men in glowing terms, some of us will be compelled to refute you, end of story. It doesn't matter the time or place, some things are more important than architecture, like LIBERTY and Democracy.

So, we can gladly return to the topic at hand, but once again, if controversial political remarks are made about divisive leaders, you can hardly expect everyone to ignore them. You may not be fishing for a debate just because you offer an opinion. That's understood. At the same time, you can't reasonably expect to offer it and then have silence, or only another person agreeing. For the sake of balance, I simply wanted to make sure that a dissenting view was made immediately clear.

[macreator]

the Retail or Office?


Office. I am curious what kind of tenants the building has for its office floors.

[lofter1]

The biggest improvement here was when the big brass letters spelling out Trump's name on the 5th Ave. facade were removed.

You can see the big brassy T R U M P behind the trees at the right ...

http://www.thecityreview.com/trumsign.gif

[finnman69]

The horizontal banding with greenish glass contrasts with the verticality of the tower. Frankly I liked the old tall bay windows better.

typical Macklowe

[bak]

I agree that the old tall bay windows were better, but its really not as bad as the impression you get from the Macklowe website...

Rendering
http://www.sotawall.com/proj_detail/USA_GM_01_lg.jpg


Installation
http://www.sotawall.com/proj_detail/USA_GM_02_lg.jpg

[BrooklynRider]

It just seems so uneccessary.

[vc10]

Anyone have a pic of the way it was before?

[Peteynyc1]

Anybody have an idea when they are going to unleash the almighty cube? Arent they really late already? I walked by a few days ago and it doesnt look even close to being done.

[MidtownGuy]

Now it is scheduled for the Spring.

[BigMac]

Gothamist
March 28, 2006

The Apple Cube Hath Landed! Worship It!

http://www.gothamist.com/attachments/jake/2006_3_applestoremidtown1.jpg

Many Highways (http://www.manyhighways.com/photoblog/20060326.php) was up in Midtown yesterday and snapped a few pictures of the new cube. Is it just us, or does that black granite look positively evil? Wasn't it supposed to be made out of clear glass (http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/02/09/247_apple_store.php)? Or is the real cube inside the black wrapping? Mac architecture nerds, please let us know.

© 2003-2005 Gothamist LLC.

[antinimby]

Wasn't it supposed to be made out of clear glass?That's one question.
The other question is why is it taking so long to do such a small little box?
Or does it just feel that way?
Forty-story towers have been completed in less time.

[Teno]

An earlier post in this thread said a cement strike dropped the project behind schedule.

[czsz]

Apparently every Apple store is wrapped in black wood prior to opening.

[lofter1]

The other question is why is it taking so long to do such a small little box?

Big hole beneath the box (reconfiguring the entire sunken plaza area in front of the GM building) is what is taking all the time.

[Deimos]

Big hole beneath the box (reconfiguring the entire sunken plaza area in front of the GM building) is what is taking all the time.
Exactly correct, the big box is merely the main entrance to a sub-terranian apple store (possibly the biggest one in the world)

[Peteynyc1]

I just walked by the location tonite and it looks like its just about finished, at least from the outside. All the new marble work is completed and they are now working on the very far edge where the sidewalk was during the majority of the construction. Who knows whats going on down below, but it definitely looks like we should get an opening really soon.

[hey19932]

peteynyc , do you know if the cube itself will be made of marble or if it will be mafe in glass? because marble would just look awful!

[Peteynyc1]

The renderings show it all glass. The space is completely cleaned up from a week ago. There is now really nice polished marble as a barrier around the entire plaza. Huge improvement.

[antinimby]

Here's the rendering again. Is it beginning to look like this?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/03/02/nyregion/gm.184.1.583.jpg

[Teno]

There is glass under there.

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/04/07/the_cube_reveal.php

[hey19932]

has the suare fountain next to the cube always been there or is it new?

[MidtownGuy]

Took these last week-
http://static.flickr.com/48/125172960_995d5f3dba_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/43/125172959_ec8d3187eb_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/48/125172958_a2cda04578_b.jpg

[ablarc]

How will they keep the truckbombers from driving up the steps? Will there be bollards or planters?

[macreator]

How will they keep the truckbombers from driving up the steps? Will there be bollards or planters?

Well you know, terrorists really have it out for Apple :D

In all seriousness, I would imagine Macklowe will add bollards to the sidewalk in front of the building.

I'm not sure how effective they are, but I've always thought bollards gave a very ordered look to a street -- plus, if not to ward off truck bombers, bollards could be useful to prevent a drunk driver from destroying Steve Jobs' cube :D

[Fabrizio]

Sad to say, I guess I´m the only one here who remembers when the ground floor of this building was a GM showroom and the building´s sunken plaza hosted a restaurant called the Autopub. You sat in booths that were like cars and they played films ....like being at a drive-in. I kid you not. The waiters were dressed like mechanics. The sunken plaza was covered in green astro turf. That was 5th Avenue in the 1970´s.

These fountains are beautiful....and those benches... classy, minimalist.... the renderings show 2 simple groups of trees...I wish that Columbus Circle could´ve been redone with this refined level of taste.

---------------
Scroll up and look at the dreadful 1980´s faux art-deco facade they slapped on the lower floors of the building next door (that houses Bergdorf men´s). And note the lone townhouse/tenement behind Bergdorfs....mmmm....imagine the top floor as your bohemian garret..... just steps from 5th. That would be beyond cool.

[ablarc]

These fountains are beautiful....and those benches... classy, minimalist.... the renderings show 2 simple groups of trees...I wish that Columbus Circle could´ve been redone with this refined level of taste.
Someone figured out that GM is really Seagram in drag.

[Fabrizio]

LOL. Yes you are right. But it seems that snobby, "better-than-thou" asthetic is so out of vogue in public spaces... I guess it´s refreshing to me. Today, one would expect petunias.

[MidtownGuy]

Yeah, the fountains will be very nice. There's lots of room for people to flow through the plaza, which is great because the area is very congested with tourists and people headed to/from the Park. Apple has made a brilliant choice here , both in location and the "notice-me" architectural entrance.

The Autopub...cool...I never knew about that, but I do vaguely remember seeing astroturf still down there in the early '90's, maybe the remains of more whimsical times.

I've always hated what Trump did to the plaza after that.

This will be such a great rebirth. I'm just not crazy about the removal of the marble on each side and replacing it with that not-so-great- glass. Or, if they insist it was needed, why not do the glass in a manner similar to the cube?

[lofter1]

This plaza will become one of the Number 1 hang-out spots in Manhattan ...

[vc10]

Now, if they can do something about the marble and dark glass on the building itself... A combination that, in my opinion, works only slightly better here than it does on the Verizon building...

[ablarc]

Yeah, if you substituted clear, green or mirror glass it would look right up-to-date, but it wouldn't be true to Ed Stone. I see him as a white-shoe-and-sunglasses type of guy, complete with leisure suit and a nice '71 Riviera.



Let it be. Isn't it enough that they've just wrecked his white marble opus at the park's other corner?

.

[czsz]

The GM is a fine building from Fifth, but when seen from the park its full girth is overwhelming. Twould be nice if it were cut in half, at least.

This plaza will become one of the Number 1 hang-out spots in Manhattan ...

Maybe, but not for Manhattanites.

[Fabrizio]

Actually, I think this piazza has it´s best chance now to attract Manhattanites. I imagine this store will attract hoards of Mac users from the East and West sides. And open all night? This should be interesting.

[MidtownGuy]

I agree! The other night, I needed to purchase something for my mac and found myself wishing the store would hurry up and open, it is a 10 minute walk from my place so I'm very excited. I would have bought my item, and then chilled out next to the fountain for a bit before walking back home.

Now, the trouble is, there is nothing, not so much as a cafe or deli, anywhere in sight from which to buy a coffee or snack. The entire area around the southeast entrance of Central Park is completely devoid of such availability. The shifty cart vendors don't qualify.

This gorgeous and green area, if it were in Europe, would have at least one sidewalk cafe spilling out somewhere, with colorful umbrellas or striped awnings and such. I'm not suggesting this for the Apple plaza, just somewhere in the area. Come to think of it, we need more of that everywhere.

[lofter1]

... not for Manhattanites.
Wait until summer.

[lofter1]

I'm not big for commercial incursions into NYC parkland, but the food kiosks w/ cafe tables in CP at Merchants Gate / Columbus Circle are great. This corner of the Park could use something similar. Get rid of that horrible parking zone just inside the Park at Grand Army Plaza and create something small in an area of that roadway there.

[czsz]

The problem is that most Manhattanites rarely have a reason to flow through the hotel/tourist restaurant and shopping zone around that corner of Fifth. It would make more sense to open the SoHo store 24 hours (is it?), a location which actually has activity in its vicinity late into the night. If I live on the UWS, for example, and want to buy a computer at 3am, it's more convenient to hop on the 1/2/3 down to SoHo than to try and make a slow transit connection all the way into East Midtown, and certainly more attractive considering there are other reasons to justify making the trip. If it's during the day during high tourist season- forget 59th and Fifth...no New Yorker with other options will want to touch it.

Times Square, which is more accessible and bustling with other diversions, would have made a better location for the store- if a less elegant one.

[Fabrizio]

I think Apple wants the 5th Avenue thing. Gucci...Prada...Macintosh. Their computers are also a fashion statement. Really... think about it....it´s a brilliant move. And the fact that the shop is removed...surrounded by a plaza... up on a pedestal. It´s smart. TSquare? Too plebian.

[macreator]

Echoing MidtownGuy, I too am very excited for this store's opening. It'll be a 10-15 minute walk for me which will be fantastic. East Midtown really lacks a great tech store -- it'll be nice not to have to take a trip to one of the two crappy CompUSA outlets in Midtown.

Word has it that this place will open on Friday May 26th which seems to say that it'll be a nightime opening which would differ from Apple's London flagship store that opened in the morning on a Saturday (?).

I'll diffinately try to stop by to get a free grand opening t-shirt and whatever other goodies they are giving out and take a few shots.

[Teno]

The problem is that most Manhattanites rarely have a reason to flow through the hotel/tourist restaurant and shopping zone around that corner of Fifth.

People who live above 59th will travel all the way to SoHo passing the GM store nearby? I doubt it.

Plus Apple has leased space in a building on 34th Street across from The Empire State Building. So Apple obviously sees a big demand that is not being met in NYC.

[lofter1]

With the quality of Apple Store's architecture the more NYC stores the better.

[macreator]

So Apple obviously sees a big demand that is not being met in NYC.

Agreed. Remember, people, Midtown is America's, if not the world's, largest central business district. If there isn't demand here, then I don't know where demand exists.

What I'm surprised Apple hasn't done yet is open a store in Brooklyn.

[Teno]

the quality of Apple Store's architecture

The computers and software inside the store are of the same caliber.

[MidtownGuy]

Agreed.
I have three Macs: a G5 dual 2.7 GHz, a flat panel iMac, and an iBook. All have performed flawlessly. I will never buy anything but a Mac.

[macreator]

MacBook Pro 2.0 Ghz representing :)

[BrooklynRider]

Do you hate me because I'm PC?

[Teno]

Dual 2Ghz G5 PowerMac, 1.25Ghz G4 PowerBook, and a 400Mhz G3 iMac.

We love everybody.

[ryan]

What I'm surprised Apple hasn't done yet is open a store in Brooklyn.

Where would they open? Atlantic Center? Seems logical (because I'm definitely not the only mac user in Brooklyn), but they seem to open stores in massively trafficked retail neighborhoods. Don't think they are interested in low-volume retail (a business model that cost Gateway).

I'm sure the smart folks at Apple are looking beyond the windfall of ipod sales and don't want to over-expand a costly physical operation. I think you'd see them in Best buy before they branch out into little boutiques (as wonderful as they would be to shop at, what will the actual human interaction I imagine you'd be able to get).

BrooklynRider - if we don't hate you for your PC, we pity you.

For the record, I've never owned my own mac, but I've managed to live with one since my dad brought home a 2C when I was in elementary school. My dad recently offered me his first generation mac though...

[MidtownGuy]

Perhaps they could take space in Gehry's Brooklyn development near all the transit and the new downtown. That area is going to boom.

[MidtownGuy]

New Pics...today they were testing the water in the fountains, and I could see some of the black covering coming down on the back side. In the picture below you can also see a bit of the round metal apparatus that will contain the elevator.

http://static.flickr.com/54/128127582_bbd915c39c_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/51/128127580_bcf6a52da0_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/56/128127581_768832f61e_b.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/48/128128816_5b2e4188f0_b.jpg

There are short metal bollards on all sides of the cube.

[lofter1]

It will be cool to be inside the cube on a windy day when the water from those fountains start blowing across that plaza.

And now I know where to go when thunder / lightning storms are approaching from across the Hudson. Apple's cube will give the best protected view in town.

[Fabrizio]

Like driving through the car-wash.

[lofter1]

But a very NICE one ...

[Peteynyc1]

I walked by the location last night and got a view of the glass cube. It looks like they are beginning to take down the black "curtain". Half of the one side of the cube closest to the building is now down. I can't wait to see it completely!:)

[lofter1]

Today they were removing the black wood (masonite?) panels and replacing them with squeegee-on black vinyl panels applied directly to the glass!

A very slow strip tease ...

[lofter1]

no pics there ^

[Teno]

The grand opening is May 6th.

Dammit I won't be in town.

Apple usually throws a big party for store openings, seeing as this is probably the most money Apple has spent on one of its stores should be something.

[macreator]

The grand opening is May 6th.

Dammit I won't be in town.

Apple usually throws a big party for store openings, seeing as this is probably the most money Apple has spent on one of its stores should be something.

Where did you hear May 6th?

UPDATE:

Nevermind, I found out the info on IfoAppleStore (www.ifoapplestore.com (http://www.ifoapplestore.com))

Looks like it is either May 6th or May 20th, although as the writer points out, May 20th seems more likely since Apple employees aren't going to show up at the store until some time next week.

[Deimos]

Too bad neither one is a friday night... if it's truly going to be a 24x7 store, that would have been a far more logical opening time.

[macreator]

Too bad neither one is a friday night... if it's truly going to be a 24x7 store, that would have been a far more logical opening time.

Ah, but you haven't met Mac fans! The opening dates are both Saturdays -- specifically at 10AM. In London, Mac fans camped out starting in the late morning on Friday before the opening of the Apple Store Regent Street.

I expect the same at the Midtown opening if not more fans showing up even earlier.

[Deimos]

Ah, but you haven't met Mac fans! The opening dates are both Saturdays -- specifically at 10AM. In London, Mac fans camped out starting in the late morning on Friday before the opening of the Apple Store Regent Street.

I expect the same at the Midtown opening if not more fans showing up even earlier.

I am a Mac fan :) I switched at the Tiger launch and camped outside the SoHo store to pick up my Mac mini and join the cult. The latest rumor is for the launch to happen on the 19th (friday) to coincide with the 5th anniversary of the first apple store. I still contend that with this store being the first 24x7 store in the chain, that a Friday night launch makes more sense... just imagine the media buzz that will come from people camping outside the store for the entire day... and at that directly in front of CBS' studio.

[macreator]

I too am a Mac fan. I went to Night of the Tiger and Panther and waited in line for several hours.

But...camping out is a bit too much for me just to get a free t-shirt.

I would go if the line will be short, even 4 hours would be tolerable, but camping out for a night? I'd rather sleep in my comfy bed at home :)

[MidtownGuy]

Passed by yesterday- cube still completely covered in black. The fountains were running with a weak flow.

[Peteynyc1]

Passed by yesterday- cube still completely covered in black. The fountains were running with a weak flow.

Perhaps the weak flow / stream is a symptom of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (Enlarged Prostate). What a shame, such a young fountain. This usually happens to fountains over 40 years old. :p

[Scruffy88]

^ haha

[lofter1]

Perhaps the weak flow / stream is a symptom of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
PFIZER (http://www.pfizerindia.com/health_bph.html) might be able to help ...

[Scruffy88]

i heard somewhere that this was going to be open 24 hours a day. That can't be right. Anybody know better?

[Deimos]

i heard somewhere that this was going to be open 24 hours a day. That can't be right. Anybody know better?
That's the going rumor right now.. it's being regarded as fact in the Mac community.

[pianoman11686]

A photo taken around a month ago shows the glass coming through the black covering. It looks really good:

http://static.flickr.com/41/124900112_813bfe15da.jpg?v=0

[Deimos]

I'm psyched for the new store to be open... Apple's in the best shape they've ever been in as a company, and the new store will be an icon on 5th Ave. It should definitely be a lot of fun.

[Citytect]

The cube is cool and all. And it's a nice addition to the GM plaza. But I don't think its all that exciting design-wise. There could be some incredible interior space below the cube, but we can only speculate about that at this point. I guess I just don't get the excitement over the cube itself.

[kz1000ps]

But you gotta realize that the fact that you're calling it "the cube" almost instantly creates a "brand," which in the marketing world is priceless. People will (well, might) refer to it with that very basic term, and that will no doubt generate an attraction in its own right (with that location, you can't really go wrong). The glass does look high quality, although I agree the overall design is no big deal, but the simplicity of the concept will have a big effect overall. Or so I predict...

[Fabrizio]

I agree.

Simplicity and high quality are a rarity. If this turns out to be a perfect cube of flat, perfectly joined panels of clear glass....then that alone will make it spectacular in my eyes. Compare the minimal style of the Ipod with the first Imac of 8 or 9 years ago. They´ve gone from cute and over designed .... to minimal and cool. Remember those first Ibooks? Ugh....they looked like Barbie´s make-up kit. I could never carry one of those hideous things around. But look at them now.... a simple white rectangle. They´ve already made a computer called "the Cube".... and so here they´ve got another one. Apple is making a reputation on clean, simple, classic, timeless design and this will renforce their design asthetic.

[Citytect]

kznyc2k, Fabrizio, I agree with you both about the design quality. And I agree about the branding/marketing. The store will turn out to be classic minimalism I'm sure, and it will be a welcome addition to 5th Ave.

But I think the excitement about the store has little to do with the design itself. For non-Mac people it's great but not really exciting.

I'm not really expressing my thought well.

[kz1000ps]

yeah, in that case, concerning non-Mac people, all the cube will do is serve as a tame landmark, compared to all the other markers-of-place that make up Grand Army Plaza. Maybe it'll draw them in, maybe it won't, but they'll most likely remember that there was "that cube" there and "it's an Apple store."

Regardless, there's enough of a market draw in the area to keep a steady flow of people coming and going through its doors. Maybe seeing that will be what it takes to get the non-believer's curiosity piqued.

[lofter1]

And maybe when it opens it will pull north lots of the folks who fill the sidewalk in front of the SoHo store each and every day ;) .

***

[mgp]

I'm guessing most of you (that have ever bought anything from apple) received the same email, but... I just got an email from apple announcing the Grand Opening, Friday May 19th at 6 PM. The tagline is "Think inside the box" with the following link.

http://www.apple.com/retail/fifthavenue/week/20060521.html

[chris]

.


I came here to post the link as well:
http://www.apple.com/retail/fifthavenue


.

[BigMac]

NY Sun
May 18, 2006

New York's Future, Cubed

New York Sun Editorial

When the new Apple Store opens for its press preview today in front of the General Motors building, the story will be about more than a major marketing move by Apple. The giant box that will be unwrapped marks a new chapter in the story of New York, how the city renews itself, takes entrepreneurial gambles, marshals private capital to remake one of its most important public squares, and creates a sense of style and optimism about the future.

The Apple Store itself will be below street level, but its entrance will be marked by a glass cube measuring 32 feet along each side, a structure that promises to make the plaza at long last the iconic public space it has long striven to be. The cube, which hearkens to the iconic I.M. Pei pyramid in the Louvre courtyard at Paris and looks stunning in architects' renderings, is all but guaranteed a quick admittance into the pantheon of New York landmarks.

The store will sit at one of the most dramatic intersections in the world, adjacent not only to one of the most beautiful classical commercial buildings in the city - Bergdorf's - but across Grand Army Plaza from the Plaza Hotel, itself undergoing, with private capital, a major renovation and reinvention as a combination of luxury condominiums and a smaller and even more elegant hotel. It is a bet on, among other things, the idea of world-scale retail in the heart of a modern city.

The visionary behind the site of the Apple Store is Harry Macklowe, chief executive of Macklowe Properties. No stranger to the rough and tumble of New York real estate, he has long been a lightning rod in the city, partly a consequence of leading a series of projects, like the Metropolitan Tower, that have reshaped Manhattan's skyline. Say what one will about Mr. Macklowe, however, one has to give him credit for at least one thing - he knows how to place a big bet.

The site on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets is an example of the process of reinvention that reshapes the city. The neighborhood started developing in the mid-19th century as the city grew northward. By 1870, William "Boss" Tweed had broken ground on a hotel there. It would have been called the Knickerbocker, but the project was interrupted when Tweed's reign collapsed in 1871. In the 1890s, the site became home to the Hotel Savoy, which would stand until it was replaced, in 1927, with the Savoy-Plaza. The new hotel building, designed by McKim, Mead & White, was a social and architectural landmark for decades.

It was torn down to make way for the present GM building, which opened in 1968. At the time, demand for office space in the Plaza neighborhood was high; one New York Times article in 1967, written as the GM building was going up, described the search for office space there as being "as intense as that for secretaries with English accents." One real estate expert, Laurence Meltzer, explained the district's popularity thus: "The Grand Central area is a functional area with a good labor force. Up in the 50s they're a little more conscious of class. There's more glitter and glamour."

"Glitter and glamour" would become the watchwords of the GM building, designed by Edward Durell Stone and Emery Roth & Sons. Its white marble-and-glass facade and elegant interiors elicited awed reactions from many of the 10,000 people who streamed through its doors on opening day in September 1968. A construction worker who had helped build it, John Greaves, told the Times, "I think it's the greatest building in New York, and not just because I worked on it." "Outstanding" was the verdict of a certain deputy commander of West Point by the name of Alexander Haig.

The developers were conscious of the fact that they were building more than a skyscraper but were in fact redesigning part of the city's public landscape. They set the building's 50-story rise back from the avenues as a way to avoid making the structure too overbearing. They also conceived of the plaza on Fifth Avenue as a new public space. On opening day, a Mrs. Max Cogan of Miami Beach told the Times that "I especially like the fact that it is set back from the street. All buildings should be like that." The original plaza, the heart of which was sunk 12 feet below street level, generated less enthusiasm. It attracted less foot traffic than its planners had hoped.

The building embodied a certain tension between the prejudices of architectural elites and ordinary New Yorkers. The latter were enthusiastic about the GM building, while the former were more skeptical. The architecture critic at the Times, Ada Louise Huxtable, described the variance as "the difference between I-know-what-I-like and serious judgment of the building's form and functions, and its impact on the New York scene." A worker at the Hamburger Heaven on 56th Street, Kenneth Williams, declared that the building would become a landmark. Ms. Huxtable declared that "General Motors has brought a new style and a new kind of abundance to Fifth Avenue. It has the best address in town. It has not given the city its best building." Forty years later, one almost thinks the burger flipper, and not the esteemed critic, turned out to be right.

The GM building reflects the way in which, in New York, even the things that stay the same are always changing. When it was built, the company whose name it bears was one of the greatest in the world. Yet by the 1980s, GM optioned the building to raise $500 million in cash and finally sold it in 1991. It ultimately found its way into the hands of an insurance company, Conseco, and one of New York's most flamboyant personalities, Donald Trump. The tower appeared in headlines yet again in 2003, when it fetched the highest price ever paid for an office tower on the continent as Mr. Macklowe paid $1.4 billion for it.

Much of that deal was financed with help from foreign businesses and individuals like Deutsche Bank and George Soros, and was eventually refinanced with capital from a private firm based in Atlanta and fueled by investments from Germans. It's a suitably global financing arrangement for one of the premier office towers in a global city. At the time, people were astounded by the audacity of the move and wondered how such an investment could ever pay off. Mr. Macklowe has been busily working to prove the skeptics wrong. Just over one year after the purchase, the building was estimated to be worth $1.6 billion.

That value arises from the building's continuing ability to attract A-list tenants, from Estee Lauder to the law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges to the toy store F.A.O. Schwartz to the hedge fund Perry Capital. The site has always been a microcosm of the economy and shows how important New York remains to the national, and global, economy. The space that once housed an automobile showroom now is home to a national television studio. The fact that Apple is investing in the site shows that Silicon Valley still pays homage to New York.

Meantime, even as the property has changed hands, its successive owners have striven for the right solution to its public space. Aware that the old plaza design wasn't working, Mr. Trump filled in the 12-foot-deep pit, in part to create more retail space below ground and in part to try to create a more workable public space. The effort was only partly successful. Then again, trial and error have been part of New York life for centuries.

The third time may well prove to be the charm. The glass cube is already generating buzz, in part because of some of the eccentricities of its design process. Mr. Macklowe reportedly had a full-size mock-up erected in the plaza under cover of darkness one night so that he could envision what it would look like. Just as quickly he had the model removed before daybreak. The developers reckon the cube will be its own advertisement for the store below, as there will be no signage on it.

Whether or not the public takes a shine to the cube and the revamped plaza around it, one thing is already clear. This cube is emblematic of the city that will surround it. It caps a gamble by one of the city's most daring real estate entrepreneurs. It will represent a reimagining of another metropolis's landmark. It will mix unabashed commercialism with a sense of civic responsibility. It is a bet of one entrepreneur and his private financial backers, offering an opportunity to reflect on how private enterprise has reshaped the city for generations and no doubt will for generations to come.

© 2006 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC.

[BigMac]

The Cube Unpeeled (http://ifostore.ord.cachefly.net/fifth_avenue/photo1/index.htm)

http://ifostore.ord.cachefly.net/fifth_avenue/photo1/images/temp.jpg

[lofter1]

fantastic ^^^ !!!!

That doorway is going to be one crowded point of access ...

Are there other ways into the store?

[ryan]

ditto - that's beautiful. I'll have to take a walk over there.

[pianoman11686]

I can't wait to see it. Anyone else planning on going to the grand opening tomorrow? I believe it's at 6pm. I'm sure they'll have some free giveaways, too.

[BigMac]

Macworld
May 18, 2006

Inside Apple's new Fifth Ave. store

By David Schloss

http://edge.macworld.com/images/content/2006/05/18/apple_store2.jpg
The staircase leading from the street

Standing in the shadow of some of the world’s retail giants — Bergdorf Goodman, FAO Schwarz and Trump Towers flanking it — a shining glass cube stands in the center of a public plaza, adorned with only the illuminated logo of Apple Computer.

On Fifth Avenue, one of the world’s best-known shopping addresses, the company on Thursday took the wraps off their new flagship store, a 10,000 square foot subterranean retail store nestled comfortably in the middle of a public space (complete with fountains, marble seating and free WiFi courtesy of Apple) between 58th and 59th street in Manhattan.

Some, before the covering that shrouded the glass cube argued that the design doesn’t fit in with the brick and mortar stores directly across the street, but as the light of the day catches the newly revealed glass panes, and as the surrounding neighborhood is reflected back to those standing around the structure, it’s clear that the new addition to the retail space will be welcomed both for its retail contributions and artistic charm.

The Lights Will Always Be On

“In the city that never sleeps, neither does this store,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail, welcoming a collection of media, analysts and VIPs into the new space, which opens to the public at 6pm on Friday.

The thirty-two foot cube that caps the store is only the tip of the iceberg — in fact it only occupies five-percent of the public plaza that Apple helped improve — only hinting at the massive retail store beneath. The new location, the 147th will not only be open twenty-four hours a day, but will be open 365 days a year. Joking that his travels often leave him on the wrong time zone looking for something to do, Johnson said that the space would attract visitors from all over the world. “We don’t want a visitor [to New York City] to miss a chance to come to the Apple Store,” and added “this store will be open from today forever.”

Johnson said that the company knew as soon as they opened the SoHo store that they needed additional space. “We love SoHo … love the historic nature of the Post Office” he said, speaking of the landmark building in which the company’s first New York store resides, “history has shown that that’s a great New York store. “Within weeks” of the SoHo opening the Apple retail team began to look for new space uptown. “We fell in love with the place above where we are meeting today.” The company began talks with the City and the owner of the GM building, and soon began development of the store.

Johnson divulged some data about the company’s retail efforts, indicating that on average Apple stores earn $4000 per square foot. By comparison, Target, Johnson’s former employer, pulls in $300 per square foot. The new Fifth Avenue store has the same 10,000 feet at SoHo, but laid out in a single-floor rectangle directly beneath the cube.

Apple, it seems, spared no expense at making a truly breathtaking space bringing in glass for the cube from not only fabricators in nearby Long Island City but from craftsmen in Germany and Italy as well. There are 538 sheets of glass in the structure, supported by more than four hundred metal bolts. A custom-made cylindrical elevator occupies the center of the space, The glass cube was designed to let in light and ambiance throughout the day. “When I’m under here” said Johnson canopied by the cube “I feel like I’m in a public space.”

The massive interior is dominated in the middle by Mac and iPod displays and flanked by registers on one side and forty-five feet of Genius Bar. The store will employ 300 “amazingly-well trained people” culled from more than 5000 applicants. The Genius Bar (including the Studio section and the iPod section) employs 96 full-time people. By contrast, the first Apple Store opened had a staff of just forty-five.

Notably absent is a theater, the center point for training and educational program that is found in the SoHo store. Johnson indicated that they decided against trying to put too much into the store, making this store the 24-hour hub of shopping and activity, and having “our great artists” present at the SoHo store.

The store’s official opening will be at 6:00 p.m. and will feature a giveaway of a MacBook per hour for the first twenty-four hours. Not surprisingly, the first customers are already lining up for the opportunity to shop at the new Apple store.

Asked if this store now represented the flagship in the Apple retail chain, Johnson gushed about his love of the other stores, but conceded that this new space is as large as any other, contains more Macs on display than SoHo, and will, after all, be open all the time.

Ryan Tracy, who works a mere two blocks from the site has been watching the progress unfold since it started. “I think it’s beautiful”, said Tracy, amazed at how quickly the final touches came together.

Tracy, like thousands others, will make the pilgrimage to the Apple Store tomorrow evening for his first glimpse inside the space, and for the opportunity to win a MacBook and is looking forward to the opening, especially because of how much seemed still to be finished just yesterday. “Around five p.m. yesterday they were still hustling to get things done. The fountains weren’t even finished.”

The hustling paid off as the newest Apple cube sits waiting for its first stream of retail customers.

Copyright 1994-2005 Mac Publishing LLC.

[BigMac]

Macworld
May 18, 2006

http://edge.macworld.com/images/content/2006/05/18/apple_store3.jpg

http://edge.macworld.com/images/content/2006/05/18/apple_store4.jpg

http://edge.macworld.com/images/content/2006/05/18/apple_store5.jpg

http://edge.macworld.com/images/content/2006/05/18/apple_store6.jpg

http://edge.macworld.com/images/content/2006/05/18/apple_store7.jpg

Copyright 1994-2005 Mac Publishing LLC.

[BigMac]

AppleInsider
May 18, 2006

Apple: Fifth Ave store will never close (photos)

By Katie Marsal

http://images.appleinsider.com/retail-fifth-ave-pr1.jpg

http://images.appleinsider.com/retail-fifth-ave-pr2.jpg

The Apple Store Fifth Avenue will be Apple's most architecturally innovative store and will also operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to offer an unprecedented level of service, the company officially announced on Thursday.

The store features a distinctive 32-foot glass cube that creates an attractive new destination on Fifth Avenue, one of the world’s most popular shopping areas.

“We opened our first New York store in SoHo in 2002, and it has been successful beyond our dreams. Now we’re thrilled to open our second New York store on Fifth Avenue,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With outstanding service and an amazing location open 24 hours a day, we think the Apple Store Fifth Avenue is going to be a favorite destination for New Yorkers and people around the world.”

The new store offers more than 100 Macs and nearly 200 iPods for customers to try before they buy, as well as the world’s largest assortment of accessories.

The Apple Store Fifth Avenue also has the largest staff of any Apple Store, with nearly 300 highly trained Mac Specialists, Mac Geniuses and Creatives who will offer free tips and tricks on photography, movies and music.

Inside the Apple Store Fifth Avenue, customers will find a combined 45-foot Genius Bar, iPod Bar and The Studio where they can get face-to-face support, free advice and work on creative projects at any hour of the day or night.

Apple also announced that more than 147 million people on three continents have visited Apple retail stores since they opened in May 2001. Apple’s Retail division generated more than one billion dollars in revenue during the 2005 holiday shopping season, solidifying the company's position as one of the fastest-growing retailers in the world.

With the opening of the Apple Store Fifth Avenue, Apple now operates 147 stores, including six in Japan, six in the U.K. and two in Canada.

The Apple Store Fifth Avenue is located at 767 Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, neighboring Central Park, FAO Schwarz and Bergdorf Goodman. It will open to the general public on Friday, May 19 at 6:00 p.m. ET.

AppleInsider © 1997-2006

[BigMac]

Gothamist
May 18, 2006

http://www.gothamist.com/attachments/jake/2006_5_cubeunpeel2.jpg

http://www.gothamist.com/attachments/jake/2006_5_cubeunpeel3.jpg

http://www.gothamist.com/attachments/jake/2006_5_cubeunpeel4.jpg

http://www.gothamist.com/attachments/jake/2006_5_applestore5th1.jpg

http://www.gothamist.com/attachments/jake/2006_5_cubeunpeel5.jpg

2003-2006 Gothamist LLC.

[MidtownGuy]

Spectacular. Now that's a box I could love.

ka-ching, ka-ching.

[kliq6]

not sure if anyone is interested but im hearing a big rumor, U2 will be playng there at the opening

[Ed007Toronto]

Unpeeling movie

http://ifostore.ord.cachefly.net/fifth_avenue/cube_unpeeling.mov

[BigMac]

Photo galleries:

CNET (http://news.com.com/Photos+See+Apples+glass+palace/2300-1041_3-6073801.html)
http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2006/exterior1_550x367.jpg

AppleInsider (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1759)
http://images.appleinsider.com/retail-fifth-ave-gallary2.jpg

Curbed (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/05/18/inside_the_apple_store_really.php)
http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005_6_appl1.jpg

Gearlog (http://gearlog.com/blogs/gearlog/articles/12201.aspx)
http://gearlog.com/photos/gearlog/images/12191/original.aspx

David Schloss (http://flickr.com/photos/davidschloss/)
http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_05_stair%3Ds.jpg

[Ed007Toronto]

Apple's store strategy bearing fruit
Few doubts remain about Jobs' approach as company readies another Manhattan location
By Nick Wingfield
WALL STREET JOURNAL
When Apple Computer Inc. opened its first Apple retail store in 2001 in a shopping mall in McLean, Va., critics saw the initiative as an expensive, dubious gamble.

But as Apple prepares to take the wraps off its latest, most ambitious store yet -- on New York's Fifth Avenue, opposite the Plaza Hotel and Bergdorf Goodman -- there are few doubts left about Chief Executive Steve Jobs' retail strategy.

On Friday evening, five years after opening its first store, Apple will unlock the doors to a subterranean store that sprawls beneath the plaza in front of the General Motors Building, just across from Central Park.

In keeping with Jobs' penchant for eye-catching designs, all that will be visible from the street is the entrance, surrounded by a roughly three-story-high glass cube jutting from the ground, reminiscent of I.M. Pei's glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre museum in Paris.

The store is located in one of the most highly trafficked tourist and retail corridors in the world. If it is successful, it will enhance Apple's visibility as the company attempts to grab a bigger slice of the computer and electronics industries. Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co., says an Apple executive told him the store will be open for business 24 hours a day, a first for the company.

"It really is the center of gravity of Fifth Avenue," says Robert Futterman, Apple's real estate broker, of the new store location. Apple declined to discuss details of the new store ahead of its official unveiling later this week.

Apple's stores are an unlikely success story in an area littered with failures -- and another vindication of Jobs' marketing savvy. In April 2004, computer maker Gateway Inc. shuttered a chain of 188 company-run retail stores after an aggressive expansion, eliminating 2,500 retail jobs. More recently, hand-held device maker Palm Inc. has attempted to mimic Apple's success, opening its own gadget shops in airports and shopping malls.

Revenue from the Apple stores was $2.35 billion in fiscal 2005, ended Sept. 24, or 17 percent of Apple's total sales, up from $621 million in fiscal 2003. Apple says the stores have been profitable for several years, providing $151 million in operating income in fiscal 2005.

The Fifth Avenue store will be the company's 147th, with others scattered throughout the United States, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. "The numbers have been just astonishing in terms of the traditional retail numbers we look at," Wolf says.

Recently, Apple's stores hit a bump when sales fell in the company's fiscal second quarter, ended April 1, to $636 million from $1.07 billion in the holiday quarter. Wolf attributes the decline to Apple's shift to Macs based on microprocessors from Intel Corp., which has led some customers to postpone computer purchases until Apple completes the transition of its entire product line.

Jobs' retail expansion has upset Apple partners along the way. Some of them have accused Apple of favoring its own stores when deciding how to dole out inventory, including new iPod models that were scarce in other retail channels when they first came on the market but were readily available in Apple's own stores. More than a half-dozen resellers of Apple products have filed lawsuits against the company between 2002 and 2006 in Santa Clara County Superior Court, alleging that Apple's stores competed unfairly with them.

"They're killing us," said David Ash, president of MacSolutions Inc., a retailer of Apple products in Los Angeles that sued Apple earlier this year in the Santa Clara court. Apple has denied the allegations and is fighting the lawsuits.

Apple started its line of stores in the first place because it believed other retailers were not doing an effective job of showcasing its Macintosh computers. Mac displays often were buried inside other major retail stores, surrounded by PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s far more common Windows operating system. Apple hired a seasoned retail executive, Ron Johnson, formerly with Target Corp., to craft its retail strategy.

Analysts and customers have praised Apple store workers for their fluency in the company's products. A highlight of the stores is the "genius bar," a section where technical experts help customers fix problems with their Macs and iPods, often free of charge. Apple regularly hosts workshops in theaterlike sections of its stores, offering training in everything from recording music using a Mac program called GarageBand to editing home movies on an iMac.

The Apple stores have attracted even more foot traffic because of the swell in consumer interest in the iPod, Apple's hit digital music and video player. Analysts say the stores give Apple a strong distribution channel that could help it enter new categories such as cellular phones and other home electronics.

Jobs, a major stickler for design details, has been intimately involved in helping to turn the stores into hip, visually memorable shopping destinations. Jobs is one of the named inventors on a patent Apple secured several years ago for the design of a signature glass staircase featured in many Apple stores. A person familiar with the matter says Jobs himself was involved in the design of the glass cube atop the new Fifth Avenue store.

In a recent interview, Jobs admitted that at one point he ordered workers to replace the metal bolts holding together the glass panels that make up the cube over the company's Fifth Avenue store. "We spent a lot of time designing the store, and it deserves to be built perfectly," he said.

Apple stores have gained a strong following among young consumers, who flock to the stores to check their e-mail using the free Internet connections and to snap photos with the digital cameras on display.

William Mon, a student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., who will graduate later this week, said he tries to visit his local Apple store whenever the company introduces new iPods and other products. Mon, 21, said that by using large, open tables to display its products, rather than cluttering them on store shelves, Apple makes it easier for visitors to play with them.

"It's not like a regular store," he says.

[Deimos]

not sure if anyone is interested but im hearing a big rumor, U2 will be playng there at the opening
Well, the rumor is that Apple's requested that either 59th or 58th streets get closed down for a live band, and after checking out the cube earlier today it looks like that will happen judging by the amount of police barricades that have been deployed to the area. U2 would be that band that makes the most sense seeing as they're practically Apple's house band.

[jeffpark]

A. when is Chase Bankmoving in to their space.
B. what is going to happan with the space they (Chase) have now at the other corner.
C. whats with the remaining Retail Space on Madison is the spoken for?

[kliq6]

Jeff, you sure have alot of question, most of which are only answered by insiders

[lofter1]

Latest word is that it won't be U2 -- but some other mystery band ...

[BigMac]

New York Times
May 19, 2006

Apple, a Success at Stores, Bets Big on Fifth Avenue

By STEVE LOHR

Shortly after Ron Johnson joined Apple Computer in 2000, his new boss, Steven P. Jobs, summoned him to a room at the company headquarters. Mr. Jobs, Apple's chief executive and impresario, pointed to a conference table with just four computers on it.

"Here's our products," Mr. Johnson remembers Mr. Jobs telling him.

"How big is the brand?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"Apple is one of the biggest brands in the world," Mr. Jobs replied.

Then, Mr. Johnson said, Apple's retail stores should be big and spacious, a physical embodiment of the Apple brand.

That early opinion set a framework for Apple's store strategy, according to Mr. Johnson, a retailing executive who stepped off the fast track at Target to come to Apple.

"We had to design an experience that was as big as the space," said Mr. Johnson, 47, who is senior vice president in charge of the stores. "When your product line is the size of a conference table, that is a real risk."

Taking that risk has paid off handsomely so far. Since it opened its first two stores five years ago today, the Apple chain has become a retailing phenomenon. Necessity and inspiration led Apple to toss out the conventional textbook on computer stores and to ignore the rules of location, design, staffing and services provided.

Revenue for each square foot at Apple stores last year was $2,489, compared with $971 at Best Buy, the big computer and electronics retailer, according to Forrester Research, a market research firm.

This evening, Apple is opening a showcase store in Manhattan that will burnish the company's reputation for clever design. The entrance to the store, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, is a glass cube, 32 feet on each side, with a suspended Apple logo inside. Customers walk down a circular staircase — or take a cylindrical glass elevator — to the 10,000-square-foot store below. The store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week — a first for Apple and an acknowledgment of New York's status as a round-the-clock city.

"We wouldn't do that in Palo Alto, but this is New York," Mr. Jobs remarked in an interview.

Apple now has 147 stores — all but 14 in the United States — and is adding new ones at the rate of 40 a year. Sales at the stores more than doubled last year, to nearly $2.4 billion, and same-store sales, those open at least a year, increased 45 percent. But in the most recent quarter ended in March, same-store sales fell 18 percent from a year earlier. That prompted some to ask whether Apple was running out of gas.

Apple says that the slippage was an aberration, caused mainly by its announcement in January that it was shifting to Intel microprocessors in its Macintosh computers, though the new machines were not yet in the stores. It says that the problem is mostly behind it now.

Intel processors also power most machines running Microsoft Windows, the dominant PC operating system, and using Intel chips makes it easier for Apple users to also run Windows programs.

Apple holds less than 5 percent of the personal computer market, and is often cast as the innovative underdog in a Windows world. The stores are crucial in turning Windows users into Apple fans because they allow them essentially to test-drive machines, with plenty of assistance from store personnel. The company says that nearly half of the people buying Macintosh computers at Apple's stores are converted Windows users.

"The dip in the March quarter was not unexpected," Mr. Johnson said. "We knew there would be a bump during this transition. But the longer-term objective here is that Apple stores are the place people are going to go to switch, to buy their first Mac. We've got to be ready for that."

At first glance, some of the company's moves seem, in stark financial terms, to be costly indulgences. Almost half of the store staff is there not to sell but to provide free help on how to use Macintosh computers, iPods, software and third-party accessories like digital cameras. Nearly all of the computers have Internet access, and the stores are crowded with people checking their e-mail, browsing the Web or listening to music on the iPods.

Staff members receive salaries and do not depend on sales commissions, as such employees do at most other computer stores. And the stores are organized around different uses of computing technology: organizing music, editing digital photos or movies, creating podcasts and blogs — all done with Apple's software.

"The Apple stores are selling digital experiences, not products," said Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester Research. "Its stores can be seen as solutions boutiques. And that's the direction that selling technology to consumers, from cellphones to HDTV's, has to go to be successful."

At Apple, Mr. Jobs is the guiding hand behind most of the big decisions and many of the small ones as well. But Mr. Johnson, analysts say, deserves much of the credit for the success of Apple's stores.

"He's a truly innovative merchandiser and a great manager," said Charles R. Wolf of Needham & Company.

After earning an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1984, Mr. Johnson was offered a job in investment banking by Goldman Sachs, but turned it down. Sitting on a stool at another Apple store, in the SoHo district of Manhattan this week, he explained that he thought retailing would be more stimulating. He started at the Mervyns store chain, working on a loading dock at a branch in suburban Los Angeles. "Fill a 40-foot trailer in 40 minutes — that was the goal," he recalled.

Mr. Johnson then spent 16 years at Target, where he rose to vice president for merchandising. He forged a partnership with Michael Graves, the interior designer, that helped build Target's image as a marketer of affordable yet stylish goods.

The lesson from his Target years, Mr. Johnson said, was that "if you have great products that are merchandised and marketed clearly, the impact can be almost unlimited."

He saw the same kind of opportunity at Apple when Mr. Jobs approached him. Other computer stores were giving Apple short shrift, Mr. Jobs thought, in part because they lacked skilled employees that could explain why Apple was different. "Steve felt with every bone in his body that Apple had to do retailing," Mr. Johnson said. "It was not an experiment for him. He saw it as an essential business strategy."

To develop the concept, Apple built a prototype store in a warehouse near its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. The work, like much at Apple, was a secret, and for his first year at the company Mr. Johnson was given an employee alias: John Bruce.

The first two Apple stores opened in McLean, Va., and Glendale, Calif., 17 months after Mr. Johnson arrived.

The conventional wisdom of retailing is that when selling expensive products that are purchased infrequently, like cars or computers, stores should stand alone on cheap land. The assumption is that shoppers will drive a distance for such special shopping trips.

But Apple decided that it could not afford to have its stores be out of the way. Instead, it opened in more expensive sites, like malls and downtown areas, where shoppers were gathered already.

"Steve's view was they'll never drive 10 miles to look at us, but they will walk 10 feet," Mr. Johnson said.

In retrospect, success has a way of looking inevitable. But there was considerable skepticism at the outset about what Apple was doing. And others have failed; Gateway closed its retail stores two years ago.

One worry Mr. Jobs and Mr. Johnson had at the start was whether the stores could attract enough skilled people to explain Apple technology to nonexperts.

As it turned out, there were plenty of young Apple enthusiasts who wanted to work for the company: 5,000 applied for the 300 jobs at the Fifth Avenue store.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[BigMac]

Boing Boing (http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/18/eyeballing_the_new_2.html)
http://boingboing.net/images/newapplestore2006.jpg

The Age (http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/apple-sets-the-standard-for-retail-therapy/2006/05/19/1147545482983.html)
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/05/19/apple2_wideweb__470x311,4.jpg

[antinimby]

I wonder whether even jaded New Yorkers are giving this thing a second glance as they pass by hurriedly.

[Deimos]

I had lunch on the "benches" at the GM building yesterday (not sure what to call the seating area that surrounds the 5th avenue entrance), and i'd say NYers are definitely paying attention judging by the amount of conversations that I heard mentioning apple.

[lofter1]

Great vid on the store this AM on CBS -- a tour with the Apple VP...

Looks great:

http://images.apple.com/chatterbox/us/2006/05/2930/img/top.gif
http://images.apple.com/chatterbox/us/2006/05/2930/img/mainimage.jpg (http://insideapple.apple.com/redir/455681/MAINIMAGE/7c83512318b047fdf64fb64f21e7428d)
http://images.apple.com/chatterbox/us/2006/05/2930/img/ttl.gif

Grand Opening
Tonight at 6:00 p.m.

The Apple Store, Fifth Avenue opens tonight—and will stay open 24/7/365. So you can get the help you need when you need it. To start things off right, we're giving away a new MacBook every hour for 24 hours straight,* and the first 2500 visitors will receive a limited-edition T-shirt. This is one all-nighter you don't want to miss.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Based on the stunning photos posted so far it actually exceeds my expectations - much more transparent than I thought possible. Nicely done.

[kliq6]

Yes, i read u2 is in Africa on a three week tour, just started the other day so it would be kinda hard for them to come in and go back so quick

[krulltime]

Wow I am glad that the cube was built. It is just very cool. I need to see it in person.

[elfgam]

I just walked by -- truly amazing; truly unbelievable. Far exceeds expectations... and i am a jaded new yorker.

[kz1000ps]

I've noticed that not a single shot has been taken (or at least posted) so far with the cube in sunlight. I've looked at the shadow angles, and it seems that everyone is taking pictures in the span of 2-3 hours during the morning while the sun is still off to the east with the GM blocking it out. What gives? I want to see if it glows in any special way when lit up, and logic would dictate that the sun will be directly overhead at some point during the day..

[americasroof]

I just walked by -- truly amazing; truly unbelievable. Far exceeds expectations... and i am a jaded new yorker.

The trusty LMDC brain trust cited the GM below ground mall when they decided on a a below ground plaza concept for GZ. We all know how dreary the concept was at GM. It's amazing what a glass tower can do to a white elephant. Think of how many problems could be addressed at GZ if they followed the same approach there!!!

I've noticed that not a single shot has been taken (or at least posted) so far with the cube in sunlight.

I will be curious though to see how they keep Apple glass clean and address issues when the sun starts beating down on it.

[antinimby]

Good questions. I've got one more:

How will wheel-chaired patrons be able to get into this place?

[BigMac]

There is an elevator in the center of the cube, next to the stairs.

[Arch]

I walked by today right after the rainstorm. Big crowd taking a look. The glass cube is finely detailed. The fins are about 3-4" think with simple stainles steel attachement clips both on the vertical faces and the roof. Quite a beautiful and seemingly simple construction.

There doesn't seem to be any way to clean the i