Archinect - News

Apple highlights Archinect in official rollout of MacOS Big Sur

2020-11-13T19:10:00-05:00

If you're an Apple user, you've probably been prompted to update your operating system to version 11 the latest OS release, dubbed "Big Sur." As a mostly Apple-based team here at Archinect HQ, we were pleasantly surprised to see Archinect highlighted on the welcome screen after the update.

As the world's most valuable company, and arguably one of the businesses that values design most significantly, we're quite chuffed to be in the company that Apple has curated.

The latest operating system introduced a newly updated UI, enhancements to Safari, Messages, Maps, and improved privacy. Check out everything new in Big Sur at this link.

Inside Foster + Partners newly remodeled Fifth Avenue Apple Store

2019-09-26T13:38:00-04:00

"Now nearly double the size of its original version with a higher ceiling and more natural light, Apple Fifth Avenue is a brighter, more expansive space, and the perfect stage for customers to discover and try Apple’s newest products...It remains the only Apple retail location open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," Apple reported in a recent press release.

The design was led by Foster + Partners in collaboration with Jony Ive. The team has introduced a number of new features and changes to the underground retail space. Known by it's iconic glass cube and suspended Apple logo, the newly renovated store sports a new stainless steel spiral staircase, 62 skylights that connect the underground space to the city above, a new area for classes, and of course, extended space to display the newest products.

Image courtesy of Foster + Partners

Additionally, the team chose to dig further into the base of the space to provide higher ceilings, creating a more expansive environment for visitors. Na...

What does a $1 million dollar staircase look like?

2016-06-01T13:50:00-04:00

The new building design introduced massive 40 foot sliding glass doors that could one day turn that store into an iCar showroom if they wanted to. The estimated breakdown of the costs started with the shell of the building costing Apple $19 million. Some of the other costs included $1 million on the staircase alone. If there's 30 stairs that $33,333 per stair.

While Norman Foster's "spaceship" design for the Apple Campus has attracted its own share of critiques for possibly reviving older corporate design models, this newly refurbished Apple Store appears to be heading for a far more multi-faceted (and luxurious) future. In an era where many prefer to order online than trek in person, must a brick and mortar store necessarily be flashier to attract and maintain a customer base?

Apple, in the news:

With the Apple Watch coming soon, Jony Ive is already revamping the Apple Store design for its arrival

2015-02-17T17:34:00-05:00

Apple design chief Jony Ive and retail head Angela Ahrendts are working together on a redesign of Apple's retail stores — a different approach that will make them better suited for selling the fashionable Apple Watch, according to a new report. [...] And while Apple Stores are known for their carpet-less floors, Ive did tell Parker that he overheard someone say they wouldn't buy a watch from a store if they weren't standing on carpet.

Bohlin Cywinsky Jackson and Eckersley O'Callaghan tapped for Apple's upcoming Madison Avenue store

2014-05-19T14:29:00-04:00

Longtime partners Bohlin Cywinsky Jackson and Eckersley O'Callaghan have been brought in to revamp the 93-year-old former United States Mortgage and Trust Company building at the corner of East 74th Street and Madison Avenue, according to New York City building permits.

Istanbul's new ultra-minimal Apple Store showcases a seamess glass box protruding from the ground

2014-04-04T17:36:00-04:00

The compact, two-level store itself is entirely under the plaza, but is topped by a first-ever rectangular “penthouse” composed of four single panes of glass and a roof. Portions of the store are visible through the windows from the plaza level. The store’s two glass staircases are also visible through huge glass panes over the top of each stair run on the sides of the store.

Photo by Instagram user orbaygumus

$450K panel of glass at Apple’s iconic 5th Avenue ‘Cube’ store shattered by snowblower

2014-01-22T14:21:00-05:00

Several readers are reporting that a snowblower has accidentally knocked into and shattered one of the large glass panels at Apple’s iconic 5th avenue Apple Store. That’s one of 15 panels, and those large slices of glass were installed a couple of years ago.

Texas library offers glimpse of bookless future

2014-01-07T19:27:00-05:00

Texas has seen the future of the public library, and it looks a lot like an Apple Store [...]. Even the librarians imitate Apple’s dress code, wearing matching shirts and that standard-bearer of geek-chic, the hoodie. But this $2.3 million library might be most notable for what it does not have — any actual books. That makes Bexar County’s BiblioTech the nation’s only bookless public library.

Apple patents Shanghai Apple Store's glass cylinder entryway; Steve Jobs co-credited as inventor

2013-10-01T13:36:00-04:00

Like the flagship Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York, the Shanghai cylinder is made almost entirely out of huge monolithic glass slabs, with only connecting joints fashioned out of metal. The Chinese build is more complex, however, as the specifications required the glass pieces required be curved to form arcs. These panels were then joined to create a circle and ultimately a cylinder.

Apple’s new architectural design language makes its debut in Stanford

2013-09-03T20:52:00-04:00

The design and space organization simplifies the visual experience for passersby and visitors even more than current designs. It also provides unprecedented visibility into the store from nearly 315 degrees, including from the sides as mall visitors arrive from other points in the mall. In the photo above, the underside of the overhanding roof is visible, covered with stainless steel panels. The back wall of the store is medium-gray stone framing the back-lit graphic displays.

Apple store unearths hospital ruins in Madrid, but construction continues without delay

2013-07-10T23:26:00-04:00

The director of the Madrid heritage department, Jaime Ignacio Muñoz of the Popular Party, explained to EL PAÍS that Apple had been instructed to change the flooring of the basement so as to “symbolically” trace the outline of these newly discovered walls. The walls themselves will then be covered up again so the floor of the new store can be placed on top. The actual original foundations of the hospital will not be visible.

Apple Continues Pushing Boundaries of Glass for Architectural Applications

2012-07-17T17:06:00-04:00

It's insane; the sides are made from a zigzagging yet continuous, seam-free piece of glass that looks to exceed 30 feet at its longest point.

The covert birth of Apple's next Santa Monica store

2011-12-09T13:58:00-05:00

... according to a person familiar with the plans who is bound by a nondisclosure agreement, Apple has already begun work on such a store in Santa Monica. Like the Peter Bohlin-designed Apple Store on New York's Upper West Side, it will have a tall, striking glass storefront...

The Santa Monica store episode also illustrates Apple's unusually covert way of doing business. Interviews with almost two dozen people familiar with Apple Store negotiations say the Cupertino, California, company sometimes employs uncommon legal tactics, refuses to name itself in public documents and hearings, and has sworn city government officials to secrecy.

Steve Jobs, a Genius of Store Design, Too

2011-10-25T19:27:00-04:00

“The best clients, to my mind, don’t say that whatever you do is fine,” Mr. Bohlin said last week, a few days after Mr. Jobs’s death. “They’re intertwined in the process. When I look back, it’s hard to remember who had what thought when. That’s the best, most satisfying work, whether a large building or a house.”

Oh, look, Bohlin Cywinski is hiring.

Apple’s Designers Work Towards Storefront Symmetry

2011-08-31T20:31:08-04:00

There is seemingly no limit to the manipulations that Apple store designers will make to ensure that the various elements of construction are aligned and pleasing to the eye. What looks like a simple retail storefront is actually a carefully designed, measured and constructed assemblage of glass, cement, metal and stone whose edges correspond.