Apple unveiled a new vision for its hugely successful retail stores on Thursday, aiming to give shoppers the experience of setting foot in the headquarters of the company credited with inventing the smartphone.
Speaking at a media event in San Francisco on Thursday, Apple executives offered a sneak peak of a new store that features design elements that will later roll out to more locations worldwide, including new spaces for socialization and collaboration.
The makeover follows Apple's first-ever decline in iPhone sales and its first revenue drop in 13 years in an increasingly saturated market.
While the redesign includes plenty of glass, metal and blonde wood – the sleek materials shoppers have come to associate with the company – it also borrows features from Apple's hotly anticipated new headquarters in Silicon Valley, which is set to open early next year.
Like the new campus, the San Francisco store features terrazzo floors, and the ceiling fixtures are also similar, BJ Siegel, Apple's senior director of design for real estate and development, said in an interview.
"We're trying to be one company and have one point of view," he said.
Shoppers who enter the "boardroom" at the San Francisco store, a new space for entrepreneurs and small business owners, will get an idea of the look of Apple’s futuristic headquarters, which is likened to a spaceship for its circular design. Much of the furniture is identical to that Apple employees will find in the new campus, including tables designed in part by Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief design officer.
Photo: Reuters/Noah Berger
When working with small business customers, "we want them to feel like they have left the retail environment and entered Apple," Siegel said.
The Apple Store is the envy of many in the retail world, with the highest sales per square foot in the industry, but some say the stores have lost their edge since the first one opened 15 years ago.
With the new design, industry watchers are getting a glimpse of how Apple retail leader Angela Ahrendts, who joined the company two years ago from Burberry, will put her stamp on the store.
Other elements of the new floor plan include a redesigned section for accessories, an open space dubbed the "forum" for community events and a leafy plaza that will be open to the public round the clock.
"We will know we have done really great if it feels like a town square," Ahrendts said.
(Reporting by Julia Love; Editing by Andrew Hay)
Photo: Reuters/Noah Berger
Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s SVP of Retail and Online Stores, discusses Apples new retail store design during a media preview in San Francisco, May 19, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Noah Berger
Photo: Reuters/Noah Berger
Related Stories
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Fluor, Arup, Day & Zimmermann top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest engineering firms in the United States.
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Gensler, Perkins+Will, NBBJ top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest architecture firms in the United States.
| Jul 18, 2014
2014 Giants 300 Report
Building Design+Construction magazine's annual ranking the nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S.
| Jul 17, 2014
A new, vibrant waterfront for the capital
Plans to improve Washington D.C.'s Potomac River waterfront by Maine Ave. have been discussed for years. Finally, The Wharf has started its first phase of construction.
| Jul 17, 2014
A harmful trade-off many U.S. green buildings make
The Urban Green Council addresses a concern that many "green" buildings in the U.S. have: poor insulation.
| Jul 7, 2014
7 emerging design trends in brick buildings
From wild architectural shapes to unique color blends and pattern arrangements, these projects demonstrate the design possibilities of brick.
| Jul 7, 2014
A climate-controlled city is Dubai's newest colossal project
To add to Dubai's already impressive portfolio of world's tallest tower and world's largest natural flower garden, Dubai Holding has plans to build the world's largest climate-controlled city.
| Jul 3, 2014
Gehry edits Canadian skyscraper plan to be 'more Toronto'
After being criticized for the original tower complex, architect Frank Gehry unveils a new design that is more subtle, and "more Toronto."
| Jul 2, 2014
SHoP designs what would be Brooklyn's tallest building
JDS Development partners with SHoP to construct a 70-story building at 775-feet tall, unprecedented for downtown Brooklyn.
| Jun 30, 2014
Research finds continued growth of design-build throughout United States
New research findings indicate that for the first time more than half of projects above $10 million are being completed through design-build project delivery.
