Glass-adorned Apple Store Sydney revealed (images)
Apple's design proposal for its first retail store in Australia includes three floors at the base of Sydney sky-rise building just outside the spectacular maritime setting of the King Street Wharf.
The project, at the corner of King and George streets, is estimated to cost in excess of $15 million in renovations, AppleInsider has learned. Design renderings call for a protruding glass atrium to blanket the facade of all three floors, with a glowing 10-foot Apple logo suspended between levels two and three.
A set of schematic drawings compiled by Apple's architectural partner, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, depict a wide but shallow retail mecca totaling some 15,000 square feet -- about 5,000 square feet per floor. A trademark glass staircase appears to run lengthwise across the right rear.
Of the three floors, the first two will be dedicated to sales of Macs, iPods and other consumer electronics, according to the schematics. Meanwhile, the top floor will be reserved specifically for customer service and include a sprawling genius bar made of wood.
The documents show Apple to have retained the services of ISP Lighting Design to provide the luminescence, Eckersley O'Callaghan to construct the glass staircase, and Flack + Kurtz to tackle the electrical wiring.
Documents also indicate the Cupertino-based company has leased three other spaces within the building at 77 King Street, including a storage area and conference room.
It's unclear when Apple hopes to begin operations out of the location, which was first confirmed by the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday.
Architectural Rendering of Apple Store Sydney at 77 King St.
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The project, at the corner of King and George streets, is estimated to cost in excess of $15 million in renovations, AppleInsider has learned. Design renderings call for a protruding glass atrium to blanket the facade of all three floors, with a glowing 10-foot Apple logo suspended between levels two and three.
A set of schematic drawings compiled by Apple's architectural partner, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, depict a wide but shallow retail mecca totaling some 15,000 square feet -- about 5,000 square feet per floor. A trademark glass staircase appears to run lengthwise across the right rear.
Of the three floors, the first two will be dedicated to sales of Macs, iPods and other consumer electronics, according to the schematics. Meanwhile, the top floor will be reserved specifically for customer service and include a sprawling genius bar made of wood.
The documents show Apple to have retained the services of ISP Lighting Design to provide the luminescence, Eckersley O'Callaghan to construct the glass staircase, and Flack + Kurtz to tackle the electrical wiring.
Documents also indicate the Cupertino-based company has leased three other spaces within the building at 77 King Street, including a storage area and conference room.
It's unclear when Apple hopes to begin operations out of the location, which was first confirmed by the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday.
Architectural Rendering of Apple Store Sydney at 77 King St.
Click for larger image
Click for larger image
Click for larger image
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Comments
It is interesting that Apple's (and Pixar's) "architect partner," Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, also designed Bill Gate's Residential Compound in Bellevue, Washington. BCJ did the Gates Compound in joint venture with Cutler Anderson Architects.
Notably, all designed on Macs. I forget what CAD software they used but it seemed gimmicky, like it rendered things to look hand-drawn. VectorWorks is still the best, with ArchiCAD coming second.
Congrats Australia.
Nice country and now Apple store. Humm, maybe I'll move down there. At least they don't have G. W. Bush.
Nice,
Congrats Australia.
Nice country and now Apple store. Humm, maybe I'll move down there. At least they don't have G. W. Bush.
I think it looks absolutely horrible and quite old-fashioned. What's with this black slab with glass "window" nonsense? Uh. These just don't look Apple at all.
Buck,
Are ya smokin' crack? That's the existing building front! The street level part at the bottom is what they are adding. Just like most of their stores.
Oh and just in case.. I am a Christian and am hoping God has a sense of humour. Maybe I should stop talking about apple as if it is a god and more of a minor prophet... Hey that will work
What's with this black slab with glass "window" nonsense?
Looks like a giant touch screen.
j
You are right we don't have G. W. Bush. We have a guy that might as well be Bush's right pocket. Really it is no different in Australia.
hehe, you beat me to it! we have the 'mini-me' of george dubya down here....
hopefully one day melbourne will get a real glass cube! :P
Nice,
Congrats Australia.
Nice country and now Apple store. Humm, maybe I'll move down there. At least they don't have G. W. Bush.
Mate, we have a bloke called John Howard, he may as well be G Dubbya's running mate in most things, has happily left a citizen of ours called Hicks sitting in your Cuban detention centre for more than five years just to keep Gearge happpy.
I am not saying this bloke hasn't been a bad boy, but 5 years is wayyyyy to long to be detained without trial. He has only just been charged with certain terrorism offences from your end relating to the war in Afghanistan it it will probably be another year before he see a court house.
Most of John Howards rhetoric comes staright from George W's teet.
Australia is a great place but our federal government has more than a few failings.
Over the past 10 years, Apple has promised their channel partners they'd NEVER sell via retail, NEVER sell directly and NEVER open their own stores. Oh well, it was just a gentleman's agreement, nothing in writing.
Computer resellers have felt the noose tightening around their neck for years.... their suppliers are now competing against them and Apple is no different.
- Apple restrict supplies to them to make sure Apple stores aways have stock and everyone else goes without.
- Resellers are no longer privy to forthcoming product releases and are often caught with old stock that they have to sell at a loss.
- Apple monitor the reseller's sales and have no issues sending one of their own staff to a reseller's customer to sell directly, but only if the sale is big enough.
- Soon Apple are going to take the name 'Apple Centre' away their businesses, and all the goodwill they'd built too.
Am I shedding a tear for the resellers ? No. It's been a lot of fun along the way and the current situation is just a reflection of the changing nature of the computer industry. The days of computers being a 'premium' item with good profit margins are over. Combine this with a consumer society that demands more features, more performance and better service for always lower prices, and you get the current 'build as many as possible in the cheapest country available' scenario.
Apple items are mass produced, consumable electrical items that with a built-in life span and planned redundancy that are churned out in the cheapest country possible, using the same parts (and probably on the same production line) as the Yogi Bear brand PC for sale at the local Aldi and right next to the no name brand biscuits and washing powder..... no different than a TV, washing machine or toaster.
Next time you go to your local reseller and find the doors closed and the shop for lease, look back favorably on the good times and move on.
This Apple Store will send a lot of the resellers around Sydney broke. You remember resellers; the people that worked tirelessly to build Apple's brand name and customer loyalty for the past 20 years
Over the past 10 years, Apple has promised their channel partners they'd NEVER sell via retail, NEVER sell directly and NEVER open their own stores. Oh well, it was just a gentleman's agreement, nothing in writing.
Computer resellers have felt the noose tightening around their neck for years.... their suppliers are now competing against them and Apple is no different.
- Apple restrict supplies to them to make sure Apple stores aways have stock and everyone else goes without.
- Resellers are no longer privy to forthcoming product releases and are often caught with old stock that they have to sell at a loss.
- Apple monitor the reseller's sales and have no issues sending one of their own staff to a reseller's customer to sell directly, but only if the sale is big enough.
- Soon Apple are going to take the name 'Apple Centre' away their businesses, and all the goodwill they'd built too.
Am I shedding a tear for the resellers ? No. It's been a lot of fun along the way and the current situation is just a reflection of the changing nature of the computer industry. The days of computers being a 'premium' item with good profit margins are over. Combine this with a consumer society that demands more features, more performance and better service for always lower prices, and you get the current 'build as many as possible in the cheapest country available' scenario.
Apple items are mass produced, consumable electrical items that with a built-in life span and planned redundancy that are churned out in the cheapest country possible, using the same parts (and probably on the same production line) as the Yogi Bear brand PC for sale at the local Aldi and right next to the no name brand biscuits and washing powder..... no different than a TV, washing machine or toaster.
Next time you go to your local reseller and find the doors closed and the shop for lease, look back favorably on the good times and move on.
This has strong elements of truth in it, yet I don't think things are so dire for resellers in Apple Australia. While the noose has tightened, Macs are far from being something dumped to clear at Aldi.
Apple Australia have rammed one tightly up the arse of every Apple reseller in Australia. But Sydney has just one flagship store. Tons of people aren't going to go right down into the heart of the city just to buy Mac stuff.
"Am I shedding a tear for the resellers ? No. It's been a lot of fun along the way and the current situation is just a reflection of the changing nature of the computer industry."
I am not sure if you are serious, if you actually worked for a reseller you wouldn't be so flippant?
Maybe my sensitivity lies in hoping to work selling Macs at some stage. Maybe that will never happen, and maybe, life goes on, and business is business.
Losing the "AppleCentre" moniker is terrible though. That's truly fracking tragic, the resellers that signed up under AppleCentre have put *a hell of a lot* of effort, as you mention, into being the premium resellers, surpassing the NextByte chain along the way...
Please note that the proposed location is on the corner of George and King Streets which is in the centre of the CDB not on King Street Wharf. Consequently, it isn't exactly in a 'spectacular maritime setting' and in fact it would not be possible to see any of the harbour from this Apple Store.
Facts aren't supposed to get in the way of a story. Haven't you heard this?