Apple Store Thread ][

Cool article. I know the writer, who is a staff member at the Somerville Arts Council.
 
Embrace contemporary?

"Boston may embrace contemporary..."?

C'mon. A couple buildings do not make a trend, especially since most of the "Boston" buildings mentioned are either far from populated areas (Seaport) or in completely different towns (MIT & Harvard).

Boston Proper has been and will continue to be staid and stodgy (and dull?), for better and for worse.
 
Wanted shades?

The representative from Boston Society of Architects Dell Mitchell voted "no" to Apple because they wouldn't pull down a shade every night to block the light.
 
Re: Wanted shades?

smartbuildboston said:
The representative from Boston Society of Architects Dell Mitchell voted "no" to Apple because they wouldn't pull down a shade every night to block the light.
Click to expand...

Oh please. This is the kind of stupidity that plagues this city. Why don't you pull down your shade at night. How late were these residents thinking Apple is going to stay open?
 
the NYC Apple Store is 24/7. I don't know if Apple has similar plans here
 
I would think not. There probably isn't a demand. Also, NYC is a 24 hour city, Boston is not.
 
I think they are ....

I think they plan on 24/7; whether they'll continue after a couple months, is the question. I don't think there'll be enough demand.
 
I still think Apple should move its Cambridge store from the Galleria mall to Harvard Square. There's a ton of vacant retail space in Harvard Square. The former HMV Records location would be perfect. It could stay open later at night here than it can in the mall, and it would help every business surrounding it, such as the Brattle Theatre.
 
Harvard Square should have been Apple's first choice instead of Boylston/NIMBY Street.
 
^
for ease of development possibly, but for sales... I would think they are better off on Boylston - between the pru/newbury shopping tourists and the convention traffic. Only thing harvard square has that boylston st doesn't is the throngs of wayward teens. (who would probably LOVE to hang out in an apple store)
 
From a retail standpoint, an Apple Store in Harvard Square appears to makes sense, but Apple already has a strong presence on Harvard's campus via the Technology Products Center in Allston...Harvard departments, students, faculty, staff, and affiliates get all their Apple hardware from this location...Further, HU TPC is the designated reseller to Partners Healthcare (including DFCI, where I work), as well as Emerson and Boston colleges...Putting a retail location in Harvard Square would duplicate much of this infrastructure...

Also, in considering Apple's design-forward sensibility in all of its retail locations, the former home of HMV is unsuitable to their brand...
 
ZenZen said:
Harvard Square should have been Apple's first choice instead of Boylston/NIMBY Street.
Click to expand...

Harvard Sq. NIMBYs make the Backbay NIMBYs look like Girl Scouts. Remember (Pritzker Prize winner) Hans Hollein's design for 90 Mt Auburn Street? They ate it for breakfast. Jobs and Co wouldve likely met a similiar fate.

Harvard Sq. is an ideal spot for the boutique retailers, but they wisely avoid the place like the plague.

Hollein's doomed design:

Hollein_Reject.jpg


Replaced, years later, by Leers Weinzapfels' Library Service Building -- looks a bit duller in real life:

90MtAuburnSt.jpg
 
It's a real shame the Hollein didn't get built...The building's purpose (Library Service) is whimsically expressed on the facade, and its design palate, materials, and massing all seem to wink at Sert's monster (Holyoke Center) up the block...The NIMBYs replaced a Vespa with a wheelbarrow...
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
I would think not. There probably isn't a demand. Also, NYC is a 24 hour city, Boston is not.
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One of the primary markets they're targeting in the area are 24/7 consumers--the students at Berklee College of Music (Berklee is a Mac school).
 
Birth of an Apple Store -- a new blog and webcam to chronicle the construction of the new Apple Store on Boylston Street. Demolition has started!

(hat-tip to Adam of UniversalHub for finding this)

Also see: Now Playing: Birth of a Store, which discusses the Back Bay Architectural Commission's process. Apple originally wanted to build only a two-story building; the Commission insisted on three stories so that it would match neighboring buildings. Good for them.
 
Someone actually made a blog and set up a webcam?

This is not a very big deal. It's a small store for a niche company that makes absurdly overpriced and unreliable mp3 players and absurdly overpriced computers that are purposely compatible with nothing to ensure that apple customers will return to apple stores to buy absurdly overpriced accessories made by apple.

People complain about Microsoft being a monopoly, but the PC market is one of the most competitive markets out there. Prices for PCs are rock-bottom and margins are extremely low.

By contrast, there is no price competition when it comes to the iPod or to apple computers. Ever wonder why iPods never go on sale? Apple has set price controls with all its authorized retailers. A manager could set the price of anything in the store to whatever they want if a situation warranted it, but price-modifying an Apple product would get him fired. They are sustaining the current, high-margin (for them - retailers make like three dollars on iPods) prices by making their prices the same across the board at all stores and completely non-negotiable.

Having a local apple store is really not all that great.
 
the webcam is out the back window of another computer store that already sells Macs, and will have the Apple Store as a new competitor.

(Macs, by the way, run a version of Unix, which is compatible with lots of things)
 
DudeUrSistersHot said:
Having a local apple store is really not all that great.
Click to expand...

Unless of course you own a Mac and hate having to trek out to the Galleria. I can't wait for this place to open.
 
One last look at the facade..


Now the fun begins


ripping up the floor


that door's toast


 
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