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Apple Stores in Australia and Boston

The Cube Mac may not have been very successful, but I see the design has been recycled for the stores! :)
 
1020 said:
The Boston store looks beautiful, but so out of place.
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I have to agree. The Boston concept looks out of place and (yes, I'm going to get nailed with this comment) looks like a lighted parking garage among the other buildings. Maybe I'm a little traditional here but putting a modern building within a classic style of buildings doesn't seem right. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for Boston getting a store (I've been going to Rockingham Park for years (mall store)) and I like the overall new look of :apple: stores but not necessarily within an area that is known for a certain style of architecture.
 
The Melbourne store looks great. It fits in great with the glass and steal skyscrapers. The Boston, however, store looks completely out of place. A glass cube has no place in that historic setting. It would be nice to see if they could do something uniquely Apple while remaining with the turn of the century architecture. How about a stone facade with a big white Apple on top? Unfortunately it looks like broadening their horizons in any way is too much is ask with Steve in control.
 
BenRoethig said:
The Boston, however, store looks completely out of place. A glass cube has no place in that historic setting. It would be nice to see if they could do something uniquely Apple while remaining with the turn of the century architecture.
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That closely cropped rendering is kind of deceptive. The view from the store entrance isn't especially quaint or historical, it's a vast expanse of concrete covering a major highway, with modern office towers, hotels and a yuppy mall on top.
 

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iMeowbot said:
This is the old Copy Cop across the street from the Pru, right? What's "traditional" about that? :confused:
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The traditional refers to the neighborhood in the Back Bay. Putting a glass envelope in a four story brownstone neighborhood has stirred some controversy. You can find some history to the controversy by looking up the Hancock Tower and its development.
 
The two pages of the Boston.com article that I could read without going through their free registration are interesting.

The article points out that developers of the store from Apple’s side had to work with city planners to ensure that the building would fit in with the surrounding neighborhood, Back Bay. In other words, they had to make it less modern since, for their purposes, totally modern cannot go with totally not modern. Somewhat modern is better at that.

Also, the roof will have some sort of vegetation that will keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Good.

It also points out that Apple’s retail stores work on a rather atypical marketing scheme. As you know, people don’t just come in to look at a product, ask for its price, and buy it or not. It’s more like people come in to use free wireless, to play around with new iPods or new cameras or new anything, maybe talk so some people in black shirts about how their machine is busted, who end up shipping it off without doing much of anything.

The experience less about buying at that point in time and more about assimilation of branding so that you’ll buy Apple when it comes time.

biggiesmalls said:
The one in Manhattan is pretty nice, and it's open 24 hours, to!

http://www.blogography.com/photos14/NYCAppleNight1.jpg
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You mean one of the two Apple Stores in Manhattan is open all the time.

The Soho one is cooler anyway. That one up there is so much more full of tourists.
 
Beautiful...

I'd just be happy if the tiny Apple store opening up in the Waterside Shops (just a few miles from me) would open up already!!
 
iMeowbot said:
That closely cropped rendering is kind of deceptive. The view from the store entrance isn't especially quaint or historical, it's a vast expanse of concrete covering a major highway, with modern office towers, hotels and a yuppy mall on top.
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Not to mention the worst traffic issues in an City I know of ;)

MattG said:
Beautiful...

I'd just be happy if the tiny Apple store opening up in the Waterside Shops (just a few miles from me) would open up already!!
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MattG - love your icon. But don't use it in Boston ok! lol
 
youngestchild said:
well the sydney store will be conveniently located between Haighs chocolates (on the opposite side of the street) and Red Eye Records (just around the corner)... I don't venture in to town much these days but those three things combine would be a might good reason.... :p

building_photo.jpg
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Holy Cow!! That looks like a giant LiteBrite! Just so they don't put something like that anywhere near Boston! I'm still trying to recover from 1-31-07.
 
Detlev said:
The traditional refers to the neighborhood in the Back Bay. Putting a glass envelope in a four story brownstone neighborhood has stirred some controversy. You can find some history to the controversy by looking up the Hancock Tower and its development.
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The "neighborhood" where the Apple store is going was, historically, an industrial area, not residential. Where the Prudential Center now sits used to be an enormous rail yard. In 1912, the Copy Cop building housed Jackson Motor Cars and Century Tires. As built, it didn't even have the recessed entrance and awnings used by Copy Cop, it was plate glass facing pedestrians, and what looks like a service pit on the sidewalk.
 
jhedges3 said:
It also points out that Apple’s retail stores work on a rather atypical marketing scheme. As you know, people don’t just come in to look at a product, ask for its price, and buy it or not. It’s more like people come in to use free wireless, to play around with new iPods or new cameras or new anything, maybe talk so some people in black shirts about how their machine is busted, who end up shipping it off without doing much of anything.

The experience less about buying at that point in time and more about assimilation of branding so that you’ll buy Apple when it comes time.
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Careful here. That works great for new customers, or when you shop for something new for yourself. For me as a consumer, the apple stores are a bit of a waste. (here come the flames).

When I'm at the maul with the apple store, I go through best buy all the time. I wanna sett what new things there might be, or what's on sale. They may even get an impulse buy out of me.

Then I go by the apple store. Now Macs are real cool and I'm apple all the way - but why go in the store? Nothing will ever be on sale - that's their policy. Even older games or software never go on sale. (never mind therre's no bargain bin - even micro center has a 'get rid of this stuff' bargain bin.)

And, usually there's nothing new. Any Apple hardware of software will have months of rumors and then a huge product announcement. If I just wander in the store on a random Saturday, I'm not going to find any 'oo, I never saw this before' item.

So unless I'm in the mood to play with something, or I have a specific purchase in mind, I'm probably not going to buy, there's no reason for me to go into the store. (Speaking of the sales-store part. The Genius bar, and the classes and such are completely different, and they're nice to have close by).
 
iMeowbot said:
The "neighborhood" where the Apple store is going was, historically, an industrial area, not residential. Where the Prudential Center now sits used to be an enormous rail yard. In 1912, the Copy Cop building housed Jackson Motor Cars and Century Tires. As built, it didn't even have the recessed entrance and awnings used by Copy Cop, it was plate glass facing pedestrians.
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With "historical," they're referring mostly to the neighborhood around Newbury Street, not so much Boylston Street itself (where the store is actually located) - except insofar as they're thinking of Trinity Church, the original wing of the BPL, and that other church whose name I can never remember at the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston (behind the Copley outbound entrance).

The Back Bay neighborhood associations want Boylston Street to look more like Newbury and Marlborough and Beacon Street, or at least Commonwealth Ave, than Huntington Ave. At any rate, I'd say that with the construction of the pencil sharpener on Exeter and Boylston and the new wing of the BPL, that whole concept went out the window (not even thinking of the new Hancock Tower, which is reflective for a reason - to "blend in" with Trinity Church: no, I'm not kidding - or the Pru).

johnmcboston said:
Careful here. [snip] Then I go by the apple store. Now Macs are real cool and I'm apple all the way - but why go in the store? Nothing will ever be on sale - that's their policy. Even older games or software never go on sale. (never mind therre's no bargain bin - even micro center has a 'get rid of this stuff' bargain bin.)
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Funny, I picked up an iPod charger in a bargain bin at the store in Burlington a few weeks ago, and I know I've seen "bargain bins" at Rockingham and North Shore.
 
"...a bright, shiny jewel box within a traditional neighborhood."
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Of course. Because nothing enhances the beauty of traditional architecture like sticking a bright shiny jewel box smack dab in the middle of it...
 
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