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Apple Previews New Piazza Liberty Store, Opening Thursday in Milan

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Apple today premiered this week's opening of Apple Piazza Liberty in the center of Milan, Italy. Set to open its doors on Thursday, the retail location features a dramatic glass fountain that serves as the entrance to the store and a backdrop to the large outdoor amphitheater.

The piazza, clad in Beola Grigia, a stone used throughout Milan, will be open to the public 24 hours a day and will host special events year-round amongst 14 Gleditsia Sunburst trees planted in the area.

Apple-Piazza-Liberty_piazza-center-steps_07242018.jpg
"There's no better expression of our vision for Apple stores serving as modern-day gathering places than Apple Piazza Liberty," said Angela Ahrendts, Apple's senior vice president of Retail. "In a city with such rich history of art, entertainment and creativity, it's an honor to establish a space where anyone can be inspired to learn, create and connect with their neighbors."
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Apple Piazza Liberty will host a variety of Today at Apple sessions, taking in photography, filmmaking, music creation, coding, design and more. This September, Apple Piazza Liberty will also host a special month-long Milan Series, where 21 local artists will share their visions for the creative future of Milan, as previewed on a special Apple.com web page.

There will be live music in the location's amphitheater on the opening night by musician LIM, a "crazy self-portraits" session with Olimpia Zagnoli on July 27, a photographic laboratory with Piotr Niepsuj on July 28, and a "draw the summer" class on July 29.

Apple-Piazza-Liberty_employee-preview_07242018.jpg
"To work within one of Italy's historic piazzas is both a great responsibility and wonderful challenge," said Jony Ive, Apple's chief design officer. "We combined two fundamental elements of the Italian piazza — water and stone — adding a glass portal that creates a multi-sensory experience as visitors enter the store through a cascading fountain that seems to envelop them."
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The store will employ 230 staff, many of whom have come to Milan from Apple stores around the world, according to Apple. Apple Piazza Liberty opens Thursday, July 26, at 5pm, and registrations for Today at Apple can be made now on Apple's website.

Article Link: Apple Previews New Piazza Liberty Store, Opening Thursday in Milan
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/24/apple-preivew-piazza-liberty-store-thursday-milan/
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giggles said:
(By the way “Liberty” in this instance stands for “Art Nouveau”, not literally “liberty”, for anyone wondering why an Italian piazza is called “liberty” instead of “libertà”)
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...in fact, if my memory serves, it's actually called Piazza del Liberty ("del" being a preposition like the french du).

As for the news itself, I can't say I'm a fan. They have basically neutered a recently restored, beautiful square by cutting out the central portion.

If I remember correctly, in times gone by it used to host an ice skating rink during winter - I guess not anymore.
 
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What? No Macs? The store looks to be so devoid of product, perhaps they haven't finished moving? Not even any iPhones ...
 
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villicodelirant said:
...in fact, if my memory serves, it's actually called Piazza del Liberty ("del" being a preposition like the french du).

As for the news itself, I can't say I'm a fan. They have basically neutered a recently restored, beautiful square by cutting out the central portion.

If I remember correctly, in times gone by it used to host an ice skating rink during winter - I guess not anymore.
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You're right, the name is del Liberty although nobody I know calls it that way, it is always Piazza Liberty.
I'm about to go there for my lunch break and I'll post a few pics.

I'm not a fan of the project, but I have to say I wasn't happy with how the place looked before so I don't feel Milan lost anything by allowing Apple to build the store there.
 
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villicodelirant said:
I'd say it's Apple PR department that is fixated with straps (for a reason: those babies probably cost 10c a pop to make and sell themselves).
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Wrong.

If the straps are so cheap to make, why are the 10$ silicone straps from Amazon etc. such crappy lint magnets compared to the originals? Answer:

The thing that shocked me, and I've been working in the watch industry doing product development for almost 2 decades now, was that on a raw materials' basis, FKM costs almost SEVEN times as much as silicone.
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https://www.juukdesign.com/single-post/2017/06/02/Why-Are-Apples-Sport-Bands-So-Expensive
 
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Looks really nice. Unfortunately where I live all but one Apple store is in a shopping mall and only one so far has had a redesign.
 
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the future said:
Wrong.
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Consider yourself not authorized to ever use that tone with me, ever.

Also, of course, not wrong (it's a well known fact I never am).

"50c" is quite obviously a number I pulled out of my ass, the rather obvious real point is that watch bands have a huge margin and sell like hot cakes, making them a good product in the eyes of the beancounters.

I don't think I need to (and I'm not going to) convince you that making them in China cost significantly less than the 50 bucks the basic models sell for.
I never once mentioned the difference in cost between different models in the range.
 
Very pretty and all that, and I'm sure probably everyone would totally disagree, but I'd much rather Apple stores, were just plain warehouse places, and Apple products were cheaper to buy.
 
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villicodelirant said:
...in fact, if my memory serves, it's actually called Piazza del Liberty ("del" being a preposition like the french du).

As for the news itself, I can't say I'm a fan. They have basically neutered a recently restored, beautiful square by cutting out the central portion.

If I remember correctly, in times gone by it used to host an ice skating rink during winter - I guess not anymore.
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I was never happy with the design of the restored square.

While the materials were good, the layout was lopsided and awkward.
 
villicodelirant said:
Consider yourself not authorized to ever use that tone with me, ever.

Also, of course, not wrong (it's a well known fact I never am).

"50c" is quite obviously a number I pulled out of my ass, the rather obvious real point is that watch bands have a huge margin and sell like hot cakes, making them a good product in the eyes of the beancounters.

I don't think I need to (and I'm not going to) convince you that making them in China cost significantly less than the 50 bucks the basic models sell for.
I never once mentioned the difference in cost between different models in the range.
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Oh please. You even said „10c“, not „50c“. Your post insinuated that Apple watch bands are cheap crap and I posted a link that proves that they are not. Hence you were wrong, in letter as well as in spirit. But yeah, of course the Watch bands have a healthy profit margin, just like everything else Apple sells.
 
villicodelirant said:
Nobody in that picture looks remotely Italian
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LOL? They look exactly like every university student in Milan.
Except the older guy, he's a bit weird, but you can see a lot of people looking like this in every shopping mall in northern Italy.
 
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