Apple unveils redesigned, simpler Fifth Ave glass cube - Page 2

I'll be there Tuesday Night for an upclose inspection. Tickets booked (well, work calls be there... but I'll take the side trip to the store).

I liked the crystalline/multi-dimensional aspect of the prior structure. From the picture I can't tell if this is an improvement, 'different,' or worse.

But engineering wise, this is amazing, at this size.

You used too many words. The trolls will get confused.

Panes = seamless
Structure = seams



Arent they large and thick enough that enough light refracts? Maybe there are some animals that can't tell it's there but I'd think humans would be able to see it just fine.



I could see him wanting credit for the idea so choosing to pay for it himself, but you (and paxman on a previous thread) of why he wouldn't have been forced to to get it built.

PS: A guy wants to break it with porcelain caps from spark plugs? Where do these people come from and how can I avoid them?

I liked it better before, as well. The original's panes were like the facets of a diamond, catching the light and making it sparkly. This is lackluster, in comparison.

It was probably because Apple's money is not his money. Arbitrarily just replacing the glass to have a cleaner appearance would probably would have been viewed as a waste of company resources and not be approved.

the only shortcoming about the cube is that steve jobs wasn't (isn't) around to watch its unveiling.

If their must be separate pieces of glass maybe it's a better visual impact for the pieces to also be squares to match the overall structure – even if it means more pieces.
However, without any horizontal seams on its sides, there's a less-obstucted view of the hanging Apple logo.

Yes and no. Glass doors are really hard to see. Lots of people can attest to this as is also demonstrated in the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pr70iTug_k. I think this is partly to do with the fact that you tend to look where you are going, and so see right through the door. A degree of absent mindedness won't help! I think a glass wall is a little different because what is on the other side is not likely to be a continuation of the path you are on.
But there are a lot of people out there with less than perfect eyesight. This is why public glass doors in the UK, and I am sure most other places, are required to have markings to let you know you are about to hit a wall... err, door.

From: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...lass_cube.html

Quote:
Originally Posted by Apple
"By using larger, seamless pieces of glass, we're using just 15 panes instead of 90."

I'm glad that they are not using those smaller, seam-filled pieces of glass, but instead, are using larger, seamless pieces of glass.

It all makes perfect sense.

After all, my response was to the contention the "The panes are seamless. Which simply means they are not framed or connected to each other. "

The old cube did not have panes which were either framed or connected to each other, so that too must have had seamless panes.

Bring back to Apple Cube Computer now!


Skip

I think someone may have caught on.

Hey Prof! Congratulations on the most obscure reference I've ever seen here!

If I remember my Future History correctly that will happen The Day After Tomorrow.

Don't let the sub-sonics get you down.

Pretty cool. It doesn't have all those metal clamps like the Shanghai store does.

I'm glad they were able to build this in NYC. Because they'd never be able to build it in CA with the seismic standards. Ron Johnson is right about how the building integrates with the GM building in the background. While the new cube is a much cleaner design, it seems to have lost its sense of scale. Maybe that's the point, to diminish the scale of the structure so that it almost isn't there.

I think the story is that the Board refused to approve the $ millions necessary to build the original cube, so Steve decided to spend the money himself because he felt so strongly about it.

On one hand, I sort of agree with the Board (assuming the story is accurate) that it was excessive. On the other, that space, especially because it's underground, had always been kind of awful before Apple took it over. Retail there (aside perhaps from the FAO Schwartz store) always failed. It needed focus and a point of interest and they cube provided that and that space is now active and lively 24 hours a day. The cube quickly became iconic and such branding was cheap at the price - it's actually a tourist attraction and people take photos in front of it all the time. Now whether it really needed to be replaced is completely another matter and I wonder whether the replacement would have happened if it was being considered today by Apple's current management team. Hopefully, the glass that came down gets recycled into another structure, Apple's or otherwise.

Frankly, I don't find the interior of Apple stores to be that special anymore. The whole parsons table thing has gotten kind of old for me. But the exteriors of some of their stores (certainly not all) like the Fifth Avenue store and the Lincoln Center store have definitely improved their neighborhoods. And while Apple probably didn't plan it this way, the architecture of the Lincoln Center store fits very well with the renovated Lincoln Center buildings just south of it, where the WNET-13 studios and the cafe with public space reside, which also use large amounts of unframed glass.

Looks less "iconic" IMO. Maybe I would think differently if I was standing next to it.

Side note: the term "iconic" is way over used these days. But since it has been used constantly for the original design I use the term for comparison purposes.

I imagine if it were technically possible to build a glass entrance very similar to this, Steve probably would have --

I believe we were talking about the vertical wall panels.

My understanding of "seamless glass panels" is that the panels are held at the top and that there are no connectors holding them together down the sides. Similar to the seamless glass panels used in hockey arenas today vs the older 'framed' panels of yesteryear.

Get over yourself. You never lined up dominoes and knocked em down? You never built a house of cards and knocked it over? You never built a sandcastle and then smashed it?


Learn to lighten up and have some fun. Relax and that stick might slide out!

They didn't say it was a seamless cube, but that it was made up if larger panes of seamless glass. Often glass cast that large has contiguous imperfections people perceive as seams, even those imperfections aren't actually seams.

Making LARGE panels of optically unblemished tempered glass is not easy and the panels of the cube look to be 24'+ long, 8'+ wide. Most everyone else would be happy with panels 1/3 that size with wavy optical blemishes in them, then hide the blemishes with lighting control or limiting the nominal standing distances you can look through the glass.

I thought it was cool but visually cluttered.

Dude, he was joking, alright? Geez... Get some help.

It seems unlikely that Steve couldn't convince the board to spend the money considering this is perhaps the premier location and that it has no curb appeal whatsoever (does it technically have a curb at all?). The proposal was ambitious and would clearly make a huge statement. I imagine this would have been an easy sell for Steve. Specially to the board. Maybe they balked at the cost and he told them he was prepared to pay it himself. I can believe he said that as part of his pitch, but that they refused to pay?

Five bucks to first person that puts an easily visible "Intel inside" sticker on it.

This should be Steve's Tomb in NYC and his embalmed body should stand at attention to greet visitors

It's gonna take a while for this new design to catch on for me.

LOL at you and your inability to read and comprehend. I've not said anything mean or malicious, just busted the chops of prof peabody for not having a sense of humor.


And now you. You guys are so wound up to defend anything and everything Apple that you can't take a joke.

Hey, nobody's upset around here except you. Everybody knows you were kidding, and we were kidding back. The prof didn't literally mean for you to go and seek help. But while we're at it... get some help, will ya? You sound all stressed.

(oh, c'mon, don't take it so personally)

Too late.

I wonder if Steve made this cube (in an unconscious way) to make up for the failures of his previously failed cubes.

They should get Jony Ive to design it. He'd start with one block of glass and ...

That's my first reaction, too, but I will withhold judgment until I see it in person. I also agree with what other posters have said that it might be a bit too seamless, and not have the same "sparkle" that the original cube had, and instead just look like nothing.

Beautiful, elegant, revolutionary. I like this better than the Shanghai cylinder. As remarkable as engineering big curved glass is, a simple cube glass structure is almost... timeless.

I think that I.M. Pei might take exception to Steve Jobs being credited with the 'design'. The Pyramid at The Louvre in Paris is identical in concept, differing only in basic geometry. It even has a spiral staircase for visitors to descend through the structure into the subterranean hall. Seamless or not, the similarity is so close that if it were a piece of electronics, someone would have been sued by now.

http://touristicattractions.com/wp-c...re-Pyramid.jpg

Who gives a crap whether he personally paid for it or the company paid for it? Maybe the shareholders didn't want to spend cash to upgrade and SJ wanted to.
And yeah Apple would make it 5 pieces of glass if they could. One day they will. Simmer down.

Everyone is a critic but not necessarily an intelligent critic. Duh, kind of hard not to have seams unless you have only one piece of glass instead of 15.

Actually, two pieces of glass or anything for that matter, that is simply butting against each other is not a seam.

However, if they were glued or framed together, as is not the case here, it would produce a seam.

As I said before, the glass panels around hockey rinks in most professional arenas, are seamless because they are individual panes of glass, some hanging from a top frame and others, slotted into the rail below. While some are a combination of both seamless and not seamless panes of glass.

Source

OK since you must have it all figured out, how would you have built the Apple glass cube without ending up with seams? Keep in mind the glass cube must be structurally sound and fairly weatherproof.

PLEASE don't tell me the hockey rink image with glass that you posted is A) structurally sound B) weatherproof or C) more pleasing to the eye than Apple's glass cube.

Hope you aren't holding your breath for that to be made public.

I'm sure it will involve at least a finished minimalist yacht and a piece of land that once bore the weight of the house of a copper magnate.

Cube looks great. Wonder if any birds have a tendency to fly into it. Considering they manage to find a screen porch door to fly into, this would seem like a giant, see through bulls eye!

Or those white dots you see on Super Market windows.

Steve and his cubes.....actually I love my cube.