Foster + Companions restores “iconic” glass Apple Fifth Avenue

Apple’s glass Fifth Avenue retailer in New York Metropolis has reopened to the general public following a renovation by Foster + Companions that added a spiral staircase, skylights and public plaza.

Apple Fifth Avenue is an underground Apple Retailer in Manhattan, nestled under a plaza that’s in entrance of Edward Durell Stone’s 50-storey Basic Motors workplace constructing. The shop overlooks the southeast nook of Central Park and was opened in 2006 by Apple founder Steve Jobs, with an “iconic glass dice” for its entrance.

Earlier than being closed for a number of years for renovation, it was “some of the photographed sights within the metropolis… [and] Steve Jobs’ defining image for Apple Fifth Avenue,” stated British structure agency Foster + Companions, who overhauled the shop with Apple and its former chief design officer Jony Ive.

“It is a 100 per cent design collaboration with Jony,” Foster + Companions’ head of studio Stefan Behling informed Dezeen on the retailer’s opening on 19 September.

The group restored the glass dice entrance and far of the shop’s floorplan under. The principle intervention was to dig a number of ft into the bottom to create increased ceilings within the subterranean retailer.

“We determined to dig deeper and make the shop increased,” Behling stated.

One other key addition is 80 skylights which can be organized in a grid throughout the ceiling and flood the shop with pure mild. The lightwells are spherical and equivalent, and are built-in right into a knitted, off-white material that creates a tent-like impact.

The ceiling is designed to vary as a way to match the color temperature exterior. Hundreds of LED lights and sensors make the shop glow, from a blueish-white within the morning to a extra golden tone later within the day. The Fifth Avenue retailer location is the one Apple Retailer that’s open 24 hours a day and 365 days a 12 months.

Timber are additionally planted inside to make the shop really feel in tune with nature. Upholstered benches in a caramel material atop a white base encompass every tree.

Wavy white concrete roof tops Foster + Companions’ Apple Aventura retailer in Miami

“The entire thought right here is that you may make it really feel completely happy, recent and outdoors,” stated Behling.

One other new characteristic of Apple Fifth Avenue is the redesigned spiral staircase, which Foster + Companions upgraded to go well with the brand new, taller retailer. A mirrored stainless-steel drum options 43 cantilevering metal steps. Bezier curves are created on every step to evoke the form of Apple merchandise.

On the higher portion of the staircase are mirrored partitions and glass that create optical illusions. The staircase additionally conceals a round elevator with a glass backside and high.

Inside the shop, partitions are clad in a pale gray Italian Castagna stone with various stripes and rounded corners. The identical stone is used at Apple Park in Silicon Valley, which was additionally designed by Foster + Companions. Flooring are off-white terrazzo.

Wooden tables and matching storage models present house for Apple merchandise, together with the newly launched iPhone 11 Professional with its three digital camera lenses. One other part of the shop is designed for internet hosting talks and occasions.

Apple Fifth Avenue’s public plaza was additionally overhauled to be “simpler to make use of and extra accessible,” in keeping with Behling. “What is likely one of the most beneficiant issues you are able to do for society? It’s truly to do a civic gesture, that’s free and like a very nice current,” he stated.

“The brand new [store] design seeks to construct on the unique thought and create a public plaza that celebrates the colourful nature of New York Metropolis,” Ive added.

The stone ground of the general public house options 62 lightwells that mix in with the bottom, whereas the remaining 18 skylights are shaped as silver orbs. They’re for each sitting on and as “public sculptures” that replicate the encompassing New York skyline.

The orbs are referred to as “Skylenses” and have mirrored stainless-steel shells with reflective glass tops, permitting mild to pour down into the shop with out having the ability to see inside. There are 9 volumes on both aspect of the glass entrance, in three rows of three.

Different features of the plaza embody 28 honey locust timber which can be planted symmetrically on the plaza’s north and south ends, at 59th Avenue and 58th Avenue. Low-lying water fountains and benches spherical out the house.

Apple Fifth Avenue joins one other Apple retailer by Foster + Companions that’s equally designed round a public out of doors house, Apple at Aventura Mall in Miami.

The agency can also be behind a number of different Apple shops, together with Chicago’s Apple Michigan Avenue, a retailer in Macau with a glowing facade and a Tokyo Apple retailer that includes bamboo.

Pictures is by Aaron Hargreaves, courtesy of Foster + Companions.