Will feature glass roof like Upper West Side store

Apple spokesperson Amy Bessette has confirmed that a new Apple Store, soon to be built in Palo Alto just one block from the existing one, will serve as a prototype design, "building on everything we've learned" in ten years of creating retail spaces, The Mercury News reports. The new facility will feature a curved glass roof and facade that leverages natural light with an unobstructed view of the showroom, elements taken from the recently-patented design of Apple's Upper West Side store in New York City.

The Upper West Side store design (seen below) used the same architectural firm as the new Palo Alto store will use, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, and the patented design also credits the late Steve Jobs and former retail VP Ron Johnson as two of the designers. The Palo Alto store will, like several of BCJ's recent Apple Store projects, use a basement and rear mezzanine for offices and storage, keeping the layout of the store itself very clean.

The store will be a two-story building with just over 15,000 square feet of total space. The same firm also designed Apple's store in London's Covent Garden and Shanghai's iconic glass-columned Pudong store and has won several design awards for its work with Apple.

The company and its architectural firm do not plan to use any one design in all future stores, but will continue to adapt to the environment and structural limitations while bringing Apple design sensibilities in wherever possible, as has been recently seen in the just-opened Grand Central Station store in New York City. In the two-story design such as with Covent Garden, a large open main floor is peppered with long tables of product displays and grouped stations where customers can sample the devices, with another floor used for specific departments such as the genius bar, software displays and niche stations for music, video and other pro specialities.

Palo Alto officials say that work on the new store is set to begin "any day now" and that the project is expected to cost $3.15 million. The older story, which was one of the early ones opened in 2001, will be shut down once the new store is completed. Based on previous project timelines, the new store could be open as soon as late spring or early summer. [via Mercury News, Palo Alto photograph via Kirstina Sangsahachart/Daily News]

Grand Central Station store

by MacNN Staff