Could signify new design for future locations

Apple is working on a new prototype store, to be based in Palo Alto, California, writes the San Jose Mercury News. While it does not identify Apple by name, a letter was recently submitted to the Palo Alto government, setting forth a project for consideration by the architectural review board. The proposal was approved 3-0, and detailed a prototype store to be based at 340 University Avenue, which sources for Mercury News say is indeed a new Apple Store.

The architectural firm responsible for the prototype is said to be Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, a long-time Apple partner responsible for some of the company's most prominent retail outlets, including the Fifth Avenue location in New York City. Apple will allegedly close its current Palo Alto store, and make major changes to the future University Avenue site, completely demolishing a roof and facade in order to build a new 10,700 square foot shop. The address used to be home to grocery and furniture stores.

The store mentioned in the proposal would exaggerate some of Apple's common design trends. "Fully half the function of the store serves to provide education and service to business as well as customer patrons in addition to product sales," the letter reads. "The store is a commons for the applicant's community to gather."

The prototype would also be completely transparent at ground level, with trees planted inside store walls. Helping to keep the trees alive would be skylights, serving double-duty as a form of daytime lighting. "[The transparent wall] dissolves the boundary that traditional store facades create," the proposal continues. "By not breaking the horizontal ground plane of the sidewalk with opaque wall or landscape element, for example, the street is made part of the store's interior; the pedestrian is in the store before entering it."

It is not known when construction might begin. Apple has refused to comment.

by MacNN Staff