Apple's Glass Roofed Retail Store Approved Without Even Discussion

[scoobydoo99]

Hrm, 3rd Street Promenade...last time I was there, it was crowded, you had too many musicians caterwauling, and heck...wait, they're putting it next to the puzzle zoo? Okay, I'll be there as soon as it opens.

haha. i suppose i should clarify:

An environment where a glass-roofed store makes sense is heaven. The 3rd St. Promenade is not my idea of heaven. Altho the crepes are good

 

[jettredmont]

The store will be built in the space of an old Borders Bookstore.

But I thought Apple needed to buy Barnes and Noble if it wanted to get real estate for new stores? Confused ...

 

[jettredmont]

what happens during an Earthquake with all that glass? Will the building be on rollers? Will the glass shatter, fall and strike all the customers dead inside? This is LA after all...

There are building codes which deal with how one designs a building to handle the oscillations of an earthquake (and there are some massive glass roofs out there so its not like this is breaking new ground technically ...). Presumably Apple hired a competent architect to deal with this.

When was the last time (outside of a cheesy disaster movie) you saw all the glass-lined skyscrapers in downtown LA shed their skins in a death shower of razor-sharp glass shards during an earthquake? Never?

 

[greatcomet]

No "Apple" in the discussion?

Who's to say this isn't a copycat Microsoft Store? JK

 

[Love]

Wouldn't it be hot inside?? Think greenhouse effect... I mean they will obviously use ACs...but still I don't think that's a good design....coming from Apple I expect more...

What's more...on a sunny day...I wouldn't want to feel like I'm "shopping" for products OUTSIDE...feels very cheap...feels like buying something from an illegal street merchant..

This is hardly the first time this has been done.

The Eaton Centre/CORE Shopping Centre in downtown Calgary has the world's largest glass skylight in the world. It's worked pretty well for them.

It also follows the same design as several of our rapid transit train stations. It looks really cool, doesn't actually get very hot, and avian fecal matter as well as rain don't seem to pose much of a problem.

 

[MacNewsFix]

OH NO! MORE "ENEGERY-WASTING" GLASS!!!

*sigh*

 

[wildmac]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

It's a shame, really. That was the location of the last remaining bookstore in the West Los Angeles area. And it was a damn fine bookstore too... 3 stories worth of everything you could ever imagine. There is only one other bookstore left in the ENTIRE Los Angeles region... at The Grove.

Barnes & Noble would disagree with you. But you probably don't venture far from Wilshire Blvd, do you?..

 

[knewsom]

I think they'll find out pretty quickly why most people who live on the coast don't have glass roofs...

 

[StyxMaker]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8L1)

Does this mean that all new Macs will come with anti-reflection glass displays. Just think about all that sunlight and the reflections.

Can you actually read an iPad or iPhone in the sun.

Yes, I do it all the time.

 

[Tonewheel]

Who Writes This Stuff?

"...without even discussion."

Little Brittany or Tiffany at MacRumors? Geez, how about hiring people with a sense of sentence structure and basic journalism?

 

[rjlawrencejr]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)



Sorry I had to comment. In OC the crystal cathedral is considered inland. I know I know, you probably have some reference saying any location within a certain amount of miles from the ocean is considered close.

And it reaches 80 in OC all the time. It's not rare at all.

I have to point this out since you reprimanded someone for not doing research before posting.

You obviously didn't read my post in the other thread. I have lived in Southern California for 44 of my 44 years including 11 in the OC. I think I know what I'm talking about. But since you say temperatures greater than 80F are a common occurrence in OC, you've proven my point even further given that the Crystal Cathedral, where summertime mid-day temps are at least 10 degrees on average higher than they are in Santa Monica, has no air conditioning. Then I think it's safe to say that if they chose not to install an artificial cooling system within the store, they would probably do just fine.

Each time I have worshiped in the Crystal Cathedral, it has been in the middle of summer in the middle of the day with approximate 1,500 fellow worshipers, and each time I have felt quite comfortable.

Next time read BEFORE you speak.

Edit:
I will give you a slight break. My sentence about how it rarely gets above 80F may have been a bit ambiguous. My intention was to refer to how it rarely gets above 80 degrees on 3rd Street in Santa Monica. But given that Garden Grove is in western OC, and not in a valley, it does get a direct breeze off the ocean much like most of the cities in Los Angeles Basin that have no land mass obstruction, temps don't get much above 80F there either. I'm not sure where you live, but I grew up in the South Bay about 5 or 6 miles east of the coast (about the same distance the Crystal Cathedral is from the coast) and we never had air conditioning and we were blessed with temperate breezes almost every day.

 

[jaison13]

It's somewhat disgusting the way planning comities / local governments pander to Apple.

Reminds me of the recent Cupertino city council meeting. The 'officials' were practically gushing over Steve Jobs and showing off their iPad's - it was cringeworthy.

At least pretend you're a professional...

an abandoned borders book store bringing in zero jobs, zero sales tax, or an apple store. have you even been in an apple store?? the one near me is always packed with people and they are buying stuff!! but yeah, they should have fought it's construction. with this booming economy they should have left it empty.. who needs policemen and firemen??

----------

call me crazy but i have to think the glass on the roof isn't going to be play old transparent glass. it will be tinted with no glare a uv filters. add to that ac units. i do love apple for it's since of style. while most retail chains (nearly all) have their store look pretty much exactly alike (mcdonalds, best buy, barnes and noble) apple try's to make the buildings unique at every location. it could probably put out a book showcasing the architecture of their signature stores and it would sell. their new campus is really cool too. and it certainly isn't cost effective. a giant doughnut. they could have gotten the same amount of work space in a square multi floor building for a 1/3 of the cost. but i do like that design is important to every faucet of apple.

 

[KOZOK]

This is hardly the first time this has been done.

No kidding! Where have the people surprised at this been hiding? There are many examples of glass roofs in commercial buildings. This is a mall in Houston - it opened over 40 years ago.

There's one like it in Dallas too.

They seem to have things under control, decade after decade. And Texas isn't exactly known for it's cool summers.

 

[Kaibelf]

Seriously

1. If you have a big meeting and discussion about it, it would go something like this:
Person A: Should we keep this empty blight in the center, or allow this proven source of high-spending foot traffic and boost to the economy for everyone's benefit?
Persons B-F: Duh.

2. Since when do people complain about the government moving too fast on something like this? Want them instead to have a set of hearings, so that you can then complain about wasted taxpayer dollars?

 

[thesiren]

Look at the picture. The other roofs are flat and must have hidden drains. The water doesn't overflow down their sides.

you do realize this is just a mock up, right? this is not the actual design. Borders is a three story building situated on the far corner of the promenade.

Have you ever BEEN to the 3rd St. Promenade? Shopping (and life) is different when it's sunny and 72 year-round Shopping, dining, and living outside is what we do. Trust me, far from "cheap", it is heaven.

(But don't come to Cali - we have too many people and tourists here already

this

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

It's a shame, really. That was the location of the last remaining bookstore in the West Los Angeles area. And it was a damn fine bookstore too... 3 stories worth of everything you could ever imagine. There is only one other bookstore left in the ENTIRE Los Angeles region... at The Grove.

you are joking right?

Hrm, 3rd Street Promenade...last time I was there, it was crowded, you had too many musicians caterwauling, and heck...wait, they're putting it next to the puzzle zoo? Okay, I'll be there as soon as it opens.

spoken like someone from thousand oaks

WOW...that is F@#*ing beautiful !!!!

again, you do realize this is just a mock up, right? this is not the actual design. Borders is a three story building situated on the far corner of the promenade.

 

[paintblock]

The proposal first came to light yesterday, and detailed a new 8,084 glass-roofed Apple Store to be built on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California.

That many glass roofs, huh?

 

[Big Alsie]

you do realize this is just a mock up, right? this is not the actual design. Borders is a three story building situated on the far corner of the promenade.

I think you have borders confused with barnes and noble.

 

[rjlawrencejr]

you do realize this is just a mock up, right? this is not the actual design. Borders is a three story building situated on the far corner of the promenade.

I think you are confusing Borders with Barnes & Noble. The B&N store is located on the northeaster most corner of the Promenade at 3rd and Wilshire. The Borders store (while on the same side of the street but much further south) was "bordered" by stores on either side.

 

[PODshady]

Non issue, rain would never touch an Apple store. It goes around.

Rain would also never touch Chuck Norris!

 

[JAT]

1. If you have a big meeting and discussion about it, it would go something like this:
Person A: Should we keep this empty blight in the center, or allow this proven source of high-spending foot traffic and boost to the economy for everyone's benefit?
Persons B-F: Duh.

2. Since when do people complain about the government moving too fast on something like this? Want them instead to have a set of hearings, so that you can then complain about wasted taxpayer dollars?

In addition to that, small govts like this usually only have serious discussion in council if one of the council members has an agenda. Like wanting a buddy's construction company hired instead. I hope no one here is calling that kind of crap a good idea. Serious discussion will instead be done with the inspectors and other specific city employees that actually matter.



Glass roofs: IDS Crystal Court in Mpls was built in early 70s. Never a problem with heating/cooling, although they do have leakage issues. (although SM will not have our weather, guaranteed) And when some guy decided to jump through it a decade ago (from the 51st floor above), he only managed to break one or two panes. They didn't have to close the courtyard or anything, just cordoned off the specific area until someone...uhm, mopped him up.

I couldn't find a great pic, but the entire ceiling is glass, with metal framing. No electric lighting used except for accents.

 

[VivaLaApple]

Drainage

Where does the rain go?

Wait, does it ever rain in Southern Cal?

The design firm of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and their structural engineers Eckersley O'Callaghan have done many, many projects throughout the world with this type of look.

 

[smirking]

"without even discussion."

Anyone wanting to take an old Borders Bookstore off of the hands of a city or an owner of a commercial plaza is probably not going to face stiff resistance anywhere. Does anyone realize how badly the Borders bankruptcy is going to screw over commercial retail real estate? The vacancy rate for shopping malls is not just going to inch up, it's going to jump up on the loss of all the Borders stores alone. I can't remember the exact percentages, but it's a really shockingly high number.

What makes it an even worse situation is that a lot of cities have forked over money to lure Borders to their cities. Some Borders enjoy subsidized rents or had part of their construction costs paid for them because Borders would bring jobs and tax revenue. Ooops.

 

[GREEN4U]

Take notes my Chinese friends.

 

[DrDomVonDoom]

Anyone who owns a mall isn't going to react to Apple's "Hey, you know our stores that attract tourists by the millions every year? Yeah we want to put a extra special one in your mall, one thats unique and will have people scrawling all over your strip mall, how's that sound?"

Uh, duh.

Or is it more of the 'it has a glass ceiling'. Listen, this Apple store isn't the first building to have a glass ceiling or made of glass, or what have you.

The Louvre Pyramid, the Grand Palais, Crown Fountain.

Its not a new phenomenon.

Actually, they should open a Apple store under the Louvre Pyramid, they got enough money to buy it

----------

There we go...

 

[Larry-K]

That's great, but anybody who knows Santa Monica knows it's just a matter of time before they come in one morning to find a dead homeless guy on the roof.

The last time I was over that way, I had to ford a river of urine to get to a book signing.

No App for that.