Jobs wants 32-foot glass cube following Apple store lease

Posted:
in General Discussion edited July 2015
The long-awaited deal for Apple?s sprawling subterranean store in the GM building was recently finalized?but only after landlord Harry Macklowe promised Steve Jobs he could take his big $9 million glass cube with him at the end of the lease, reports New York Magazine.



According to the report, Jobs personally designed the 32-foot-by-32-foot hollow glass structure that will mark the store?s entrance on the Fifth Avenue plaza. Over the past month, workers could be seen assembling the massive gemstone-esque structure, one narrow glass pane at a time.



?Steve Jobs felt that he created the cube so he owned it,? said Apple broker Robert Futterman, noting that Macklowe wanted it to stay put. ?At the eleventh hour, that was the biggest issue.?



The report says that Macklowe aggressively wooed Jobs, flying out to California twice and offering the 24,000-square-foot retail space at well below market rent of $1,000 per square foot.



"At the end of the twenty-year lease, Jobs must replace the cube with a comparable structure before hauling it off."



The GM Building flagship Apple store is now slated to open next spring.



Rendering of 5th Ave. Apple retail store entrance.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by AppleInsider

    24,000-square-foot retail space at well below market rent of $1,000 per square foot.



    Is that $24 million per month or per year? Regardless, it seems like the $9 million glass cube is pretty insignificant compared to the rental cost - probably won't even be worth removing at the end of 20 years.
  • Reply 2 of 33
    How are they going to stop people from throwing a rock at it?
  • Reply 3 of 33
    Quote:

    Originally posted by zenatek

    How are they going to stop people from throwing a rock at it?



    I assume its tempered glass.



    What does one do with 32x32x32 feet of glass?
  • Reply 4 of 33
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by salmonstk





    What does one do with 32x32x32 feet of glass?




    Find a 1 inch by 1 inch place to stick an "Intel Inside" sticker on it...
  • Reply 5 of 33
    kolchakkolchak Posts: 1,398member
    Commercial rents are X number of dollars per square foot per year, so that's $24 million per year for the Apple Store. $2M per month is pretty hefty, even for Midtown.



    The glass doesn't have to be tempered. As long as it's thick and the edges are protected, it'll be fine, although laminated glass would be safer. What keeps people from throwing rocks at all the floor-to-ceiling picture windows all over Manhattan but especially common in Midtown? None of those are tempered, either. Mostly, it's the dearth of rocks in Manhattan. Plus the fact that it's tough to damage thick panes of glass. And security cameras.



    I suppose Jobs needed something to replace the Jackling house on his Woodside lot.
  • Reply 6 of 33
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    Is there is a place where society has dissolved to the point where people throw rocks at architecture made of glass?



    There are a lot of glass structures in New York that no one throws rocks at.
  • Reply 7 of 33
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    Quote:

    Mostly, it's the dearth of rocks in Manhattan.



    Midtown Manhattan actually sits on giant slabs of granite. Which is the reason they are able to build so many skyscrapers in that area.



    You can often see exposed parts of the granite in Central Park, Harlem, and Washington Heights.



    But of course no one is going to pick one up and throw it at a glass building.
  • Reply 8 of 33
    What's with Steve Jobs and cubes!? Y'know, there are OTHER Platonic solids. What's the matter with a nice icosahedron?
  • Reply 9 of 33
    You know what they say about people who live in glass houses...er, structures...
  • Reply 10 of 33
    :D
  • Reply 11 of 33
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    Wait a minute - just exactly how can a 32' x 32' x 32' greenhouse cost $9 million? I think that apple is letting its success get to its head - this is like the $500 hammers that the military buys.
  • Reply 12 of 33
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    I'm sure the 32 foot cube is more compicated than a simple greenhouse.



    Large panes of glass are expensive to manufacture, transport, and install.
  • Reply 13 of 33
    sekiosekio Posts: 150member
    Is it just me or does this story make steve Jobs sound absolutly crazy? He's arguring over what has to be done with a giant glass cube! I love it.
  • Reply 14 of 33
    May be Jobs wants to be buried in it when he dies! That is why he wants it back
  • Reply 15 of 33
    Quote:

    Originally posted by salmonstk

    What does one do with 32x32x32 feet of glass?



    Surely it's only 5 x 32x32 feet of glass ?





    That makes it around $1700 per square foot, almost twice as much as the cost of the retail space per year... I'd wanna keep it at that price!
  • Reply 16 of 33
    It's clearly an engineering marvel. Just wait til you see what Jobs creates once nanotechnology is sufficiently advanced to create diamond-strength transparent structures that are just fractions of an inch in thickness. The mind boggles.
  • Reply 17 of 33
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SpamSandwich

    It's clearly an engineering marvel.



    Was that pun intended?
  • Reply 18 of 33
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    I'm more interested in the "comparable structure".... in just 20 years of suspense, we'll get to see it!



    I think the real answer re rocks, careening Mountain Dew Trucks, etc., is... insurance.
  • Reply 19 of 33
    By the time the lease ends Steve will be in his 70s.



    Does he intend to use this cube as his final resting place (similar to Lenin's mausoleum) in the middle of the Infinte Loop campus, so the unwashed masses can file past and gape in awe and wonder at his Steveness?
  • Reply 20 of 33
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Robrippin

    < insert random joke about female employees having to work under a glass ceiling >



    I can hear the chatter in the office/coatroom now...



    Employee 1 "Did you tell the manager about the missing iPod accessories?"



    Employee 2 "Yea, and she hit the glass ceiling!"
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