Uses marble, iron, wood

Apple has essentially abandoned a standard design for the Paris Opéra retail store opening on Saturday, new photos show. Differences are immediately visible from the outside, as the facade employs three small, black-backed Apple logos including a banner, rather than one large white logo framed against glass and steel. Those materials are also absent from the interior, replaced with marble, iron, stone and wood.

The main floor is interrupted by masonry columns, and lighting is supplied by a skylight during the day and hanging fixtures at night, the latter of which are generally avoided in Apple Stores. Of three total staircases, the spiral one turns out not to use glass as expected but wood, supported by wrought iron. Many other decorative touches are used in the store, such as mosaic tile and carvings in the columns.

Many of the differences are accommodations meant to preserve historic architecture; others are simply used to keep the style consistent. The outlet is also smaller than it would initially appear, occupying only 50 feet of the 115-foot facade on Rue Halévy. The responsible architects are nevertheless from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, the firm which has handled some of Apple's most prominent stores.

[via ifoAppleStore]

by MacNN Staff