Apple recently provided a sneak preview of its latest retail store in San Francisco’s Union Square ahead of its grand opening, and building permits shared with BuildZoom (via Patently Apple) have now revealed some of the costs involved in buying and prepping the store.
In this week’s top stories we break down the latest iPhone 7 leaks, the new iTunes 12.4 release, Tim Cook’s trip to India & much more. Head below for the usual roundup of handy links to all of this week’s most shared stories:
Apple and its retail chief Angela Ahrendts today previewed the company’s brand new San Francisco retail store at Union Square ahead of an official grand opening this weekend.
“Fifteen years ago today Apple opened its first two stores and we’re thrilled to mark the occasion with the opening of Apple Union Square in San Francisco,” said Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail and Online Stores. “We are not just evolving our store design, but its purpose and greater role in the community as we educate and entertain visitors and serve our network of local entrepreneurs.”
The images above and below were shared online today by @harrymcracken, @panzer and others attending the preview event for press. The new store features a number of new design elements, including changes to the layout for its Genius Bar that will be known as “Genius Grove” at the new store, and a number of new specialized areas throughout.
Apple has officially announced that its new retail store in Marseille, France will open May 14 with the usual announcement on its website (via MacGeneration).
The new retail store, located at the Les Terrasses du Port shopping mall, is Apple’s 20th location in France. That’s if including the shop within Galeries Lafayette that it opened last year as one of several boutique locations for sales of the Apple Watch. Apple is also planning other retail stores for the country including a high-profile flagship location on Champs-Élysées in Paris.
The New York Post reports that a 21-year-old woman has died after falling in front of a subway train while trying to catch the iPad she had dropped.
The woman who was crushed to death by a subway train at Union Square on Saturday lost her balance after fumbling with her iPad, causing her to fall onto the tracks, officials said.
Police said that it appeared the woman had lost her grip on the iPad and made a grab for it as it slipped, losing her footing and falling onto the tracks just as a train was arriving. The conductor reportedly spotted the woman on the rails but was too late to stop the train.
Cautionary note: the linked report has a photo which appears to show some of the remains of the victim – we’ve cropped it out of the above photo.
Photo: R Umar Abbasi/New York Post
Re/code reports that the city of San Francisco has finally granted Apple permission to begin work on its iconic new Union Square retail center, which the company has said will be “more iconic than the glass cube in New York City.” The store, pictured in the rendering above, has been in the works for almost a year as the city insisted upon various changes to preserve historic elements and allow for improved accessibility.
The store will replace Apple’s existing Stockton Street location, adding about fifty new jobs in the process. Apple’s new building will feature a two-floor design with 23-foot glass sliding doors and a plaza behind the store that will be shared with the hotel next door with free Wi-Fi to visitors.
The iconic Ruth Asawa fountain behind the store will be relocated (slightly) to accommodate the design of the plaza, which caused some concern among members of the city’s planning commission, though Apple has assured the city that the fountain will be entirely preserved during the process.
More renderings of the gorgeous new store can be found below:
The San Francisco city planning commission voted today in favor of accepting the new Apple Store in Union Square, which an Apple spokesman said would be “a flagship” store that would become “more iconic than the glass cube in New York City.”
The changes announced today include moving the historic fountain outside the new location to center it in the resized plaza. According to Apple’s architect, the fountain will be moved in one piece rather than disassembled and rebuilt a few feet away from its current position. Apple’s previous plan to relocate the fountain was not satisfactory to the city’s historic preservation committee, but the new plan was accepted this week.
A set of new renderings of the proposed Union Square Apple retail location was presented to the San Francisco Planning Department this week that show an updated design for the store’s entrance. The new renders depict the store with massive 23-foot wide sliding glass doors (which measure nearly 45 feet tall each) that a large section of the storefront to open to the street.
Regular-sized doors on either side of the larger ones will allow customers to come and go if the main doors are closed.
Update: AllThingsD got its hands on some better images (above) and a statement from Apple on the new store (below):
“We’re thrilled to be working with the city of San Francisco on a new Apple retail store at Union Square…. Our store on Stockton Street has welcomed over 13 million customers since it opened nine years ago, and we look forward to serving them in an amazing new location when this project is complete.”
San Francisco Chronicle reports today that Apple has now submitted plans to open a new store in San Francisco’s Union Square. The new location would apparently replace Apple’s old retail location just a few streets away at Stockton and Ellis.
The new building is said to give Apple around 45% more space than its old San Fran retail location and will apparently occupy a building formerly home to Levi’s in Union Square at Stockton and Post Streets.
Apple thinks it will add about 50 jobs on top of the 350 it employees at its current Stockton street location:
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