Work on Apple's new Union Square site begins as existing San Francisco store gets Winter Walk
Apple's plans to build a new Union Square retail store in San Francisco are finally getting started with the demolition of an existing building. Meanwhile, just down the street the company's current store is getting a holiday "Winter Walk" plaza treatment.
Work has begun to remove the former Levi's store sitting on the Union Square corner where Apple plans to build a new glass and steel retail cube featuring giant sliding doors.
The existing triangular building is now surrounded by scaffolding as workers break down its interior. Also visible on the construction site is the grotesque "folk art" plaza fountain between Levi's and the Hyatt hotel, which gained attention when a local columnist insisted that Apple "save" the work. The object is being moved to a new location.
Despite the demolition progress, a source familiar with Apple's construction timeline said the new Union Store location isn't expected to open for another year and a half.
While intended to be minimally invasive compared to digging a "cut and cover" subway passage, the tunnel boring work has closed Stockton Street for more than two years. The street (which passes in front of the current Apple Store) isn't expected to reopen until 2017 at the earliest.
However, because Union Square is at the epicenter of San Francisco's holiday shopping and tourism, surface level street work related to the Central Subway project has stopped through the end of the year. The closed street has been temporarily reopened as a pedestrian mall covered in astroturf.
Called the "Winter Walk SF," the two blocks of pedestrian-only plaza taking over Stockton Street have quickly become a popular place for weary shoppers to take a break. The site features street musicians, food trucks, illuminated seating, projection light shows and an man blowing some giant bubbles.
The heavily trafficked pedestrian mall is a reprieve for the Apple Store and other retailers along the stretch of Stockton between Market and Union Square, which until now have faced a boarded up construction zone.
The construction work over the last two and a half years hasn't stopped customers from lining up around the block for the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 product launches, and Apple's store remains very busy most of the time, particularly during the holidays.
In stark contrast, Microsoft's retail store and two adjacent retail popups for Samsung mobile products and Amazon's Kindle Fire, located across Market Street in the Westfield Shopping Center, all appeared to have more employees than customers this weekend.
Work has begun to remove the former Levi's store sitting on the Union Square corner where Apple plans to build a new glass and steel retail cube featuring giant sliding doors.
The existing triangular building is now surrounded by scaffolding as workers break down its interior. Also visible on the construction site is the grotesque "folk art" plaza fountain between Levi's and the Hyatt hotel, which gained attention when a local columnist insisted that Apple "save" the work. The object is being moved to a new location.
Despite the demolition progress, a source familiar with Apple's construction timeline said the new Union Store location isn't expected to open for another year and a half.
Existing store a Winter Walk a way
Apple's current store is located three blocks away at the intersection of Stockton, Ellis and Market Streets. The location has been plagued with nonstop construction of the Central Subway, which has dug underneath Stockton using tunnel boring machines over the past year.While intended to be minimally invasive compared to digging a "cut and cover" subway passage, the tunnel boring work has closed Stockton Street for more than two years. The street (which passes in front of the current Apple Store) isn't expected to reopen until 2017 at the earliest.
However, because Union Square is at the epicenter of San Francisco's holiday shopping and tourism, surface level street work related to the Central Subway project has stopped through the end of the year. The closed street has been temporarily reopened as a pedestrian mall covered in astroturf.
Called the "Winter Walk SF," the two blocks of pedestrian-only plaza taking over Stockton Street have quickly become a popular place for weary shoppers to take a break. The site features street musicians, food trucks, illuminated seating, projection light shows and an man blowing some giant bubbles.
The heavily trafficked pedestrian mall is a reprieve for the Apple Store and other retailers along the stretch of Stockton between Market and Union Square, which until now have faced a boarded up construction zone.
The construction work over the last two and a half years hasn't stopped customers from lining up around the block for the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 product launches, and Apple's store remains very busy most of the time, particularly during the holidays.
In stark contrast, Microsoft's retail store and two adjacent retail popups for Samsung mobile products and Amazon's Kindle Fire, located across Market Street in the Westfield Shopping Center, all appeared to have more employees than customers this weekend.
Comments
Oops, I “accidentally” brought down a wrecking ball onto that monstrosity fountain. Guess we can redesign the store now!
Oops, I “accidentally” brought down a wrecking ball onto that monstrosity fountain. Guess we can redesign the store now!
Funny. You beat me to it. I was thinking of exactly the same thing.
Maybe that boring machine can "accidentally" create a sinkhole and suck that fugly fountain to the earth's core.
I can't believe that people think that visual eyesore is even worth saving.
It's a San Francisco landmark and generations have been enjoying it for decades.
I love Apple, and I love their stores, but there was never any reason to tear down that fountain. It's a shame they're moving it, but at least it's being preserved.
The other comments in here are equally disgusting. Respectfully, you do not know what you're talking about and apparently have no regard for the culture and character of the city.
Oops, I “accidentally” brought down a wrecking ball onto that monstrosity fountain. Guess we can redesign the store now!
Maybe you can "accidentally" drop a wrecking ball on your head instead.
That fountain is an important piece of public art.
The revised plans for the new Union Sq., Apple Store include what should be a quite wonderful narrow landscape mall that will feature the fountain. The fountain is by an extremely well regarded female San Francisco artist Ruth Asuwa who's major work was done in the 1940s and 50s. She is not a "Folk" artist, though most people see the work like that.
Maybe you can "accidentally" drop a wrecking ball on your head instead.
That fountain is an important piece of public art.
According to whom? I'm at Union Square all the time and prior to Apple's interest in that corner that fountain was forgotten and in a shady area occupied by druggies and homeless people/panhandlers. Most people didn't even give that horrendous-looking fountain a second, let-alone first glance.
"Important piece of public art"?? Pfft... I laugh at that statement. Art is in the eye of the beholder, and you sir should get your cataracts looked at.
That “fountain” is an “important” piece of “public” “art”.
Uh… huh.
"Winter Walk"...must be tough going in SF... it looks downright balmy to me.
That “fountain” is an “important” piece of “public” “art”.
The subway bar was completed almost 6 months ago and lies about 100 feet below ground. It was done w the street open. What is going on now is the construction of the underground subway station itself connecting from Market Street BART/Union up to Union Square.
The revised plans for the new Union Sq., Apple Store include what should be a quite wonderful narrow landscape mall that will feature the fountain. The fountain is by an extremely well regarded female San Francisco artist Ruth Asuwa who's major work was done in the 1940s and 50s. She is not a "Folk" artist, though most people see the work like that.
Stockton Street was not "opened," there was just a lot of utility relocation and vertical core drilling that closed down the two blocks that are now astroturfed. There is only a small spot where there's a hole into the tunnel and underground walkway that will connect Powell station with the new Union Square stop.
The Asuwa fountain is not pictured in the latest renderings of the plaza that will be behind the new Apple store. The old fountain, a dirty looking copper tub sprouting reliefs of various SF tourist icons, will apparently be installed somewhere else. There is nothing remarkable about this particularly fountain, regardless of whether it was created by a "female" or not.
Asuwa has installed lots of other fountains at the City's expense which are actually closer to being interesting or at least iconic, like the mermaid fountain at Ghirardelli Square or the metal loop at Bayside Plaza on the Embarcadero.
... the grotesque "folk art" plaza fountain ...
Have walked past it many times. And I thought "WTF is that?" every time.
Anyone every been to Manhattan during Christmas? It ruins any other experience you will ever have.
Out of all the major cities, San Francisco is the hokiest. That is one ugly plaza! Is that turf? lol.
Anyone every been to Manhattan during Christmas? It ruins any other experience you will ever have.
When did you last experience NYC during Christmas - in the 1950s?
I live here and what I see are a few nicely decorated windows and tons of slow walking tourists who block the streets. And idiot kids from New Jersey who dress in dirty Santa costumes and spend an entire day bar-hopping with the sole purpose of getting completely drunk and usually vomiting in the streets.
And then I see (as almost everywhere in the U.S.) people obsessed with spending too much of their hard-earned cash (and that's if they're not going into debt) buying tons of Chinese and Indian-made stuff that they don't really need as shopping takes precedence over everything else. You would think that Jesus was executed for spending too much time in a shopping mall.
The big tree at Rockefeller Center is "pretty", but it's always bothered me a bit that we celebrate the holidays by killing a giant, live plant.
On rare occasions we have a Xmas snow and that does make the streets pretty for about an hour or two before it turns filthy from pollution.
I guess the only positive is that the tourists and the shopping help the economy somewhat and many retailers hire extra workers for the season. I was in a department store a few weeks ago (but not during the Black Friday weekend sales) and the stores already look like they were hit by a hurricane.
What Xmas says to me is that the true religion of this country is Shopping, our bible comprises of documents listing sales and our commandments are to acquire as much crap as possible. And our Crusade is to acquire that $275 55" HDTV or a below-cost X-Box or to be the first person to acquire the new Apple device. And if we stomp over people in our quest to acquire that TV or game machine, that's okay, because the people on the floor are our martyrs.
Oh, come on. It looks like a century's worth of gum stuck to the underside of a desk.
Let me know when the Guggenheim starts collecting your artwork. Maybe then I'll give your art and architecture opinions a listen.
The Asuwa fountain is not pictured in the latest renderings of the plaza that will be behind the new Apple store. The old fountain, a dirty looking copper tub sprouting reliefs of various SF tourist icons, will apparently be installed somewhere else. There is nothing remarkable about this particularly fountain, regardless of whether it was created by a "female" or not.
The noteworthy aspect of the Hyatt Fountain is the fact that Ruth Asawa got local school kids to contribute; this was in the early Sixties.
The Ghirardelli Square mermaid fountain from the late Fifties was her first such project to solicit contributions from school kids. At the time, this sort of public participation in the creation of public art by schoolchildren was revolutionary.
It's not just a finger painting on the family refrigerator, it's a permanent piece of public art in collaboration with a respected artist. Asawa was a longtime champion of encouraging art classes in the schools.
Today, these sort of art projects are commonplace and we take stuff like this for granted.
The Asuwa fountain is not pictured in the latest renderings of the plaza that will be behind the new Apple store. The old fountain, a dirty looking copper tub sprouting reliefs of various SF tourist icons, will apparently be installed somewhere else. There is nothing remarkable about this particularly fountain, regardless of whether it was created by a "female" or not.
Asuwa has installed lots of other fountains at the City's expense which are actually closer to being interesting or at least iconic, like the mermaid fountain at Ghirardelli Square or the metal loop at Bayside Plaza on the Embarcadero.
I often enjoy your articles, but when your typical curmudgeonly tone degrades into arrogance and pettiness, it only avoid being annoying or laughable when you write about something you know (at least) something about, or you at least have some valid point to make. In this case you have neither. All we can assume is that you're severely artistically challenged. And that's fine. Many people are.
But please don't pretend your personal limitations in knowledge, esthetics, history, taste, and now (apparently) gender bias are somehow universal truths that readers should accept as fact.