The renovated Apple Store Fifth Avenue will reopen at 8 a.m. local time tomorrow. Tim Cook called the location, with its famous cube entrance, “unique among Apple Stores.”
Inside the New Apple Store Fifth Avenue
The store is now nearly twice the size of the original version. Apple said it has more ceiling and natural light too. The store’s plaza has been redesigned and is now lined by 28 honey locust trees and linear fountains.
The famous glass cube contains 18 mirror-glass Skylenses and 62 skylights providing natural light for store below. Customers still enter via the cube and taking a new stainless steel spiral staircase or the new elevator to the main hall. That staircase is made of 43 cantilevered stair treads supporting a floating glass cylinder. It is back-lit and made from curved fabric. It combines artificial and natural light to try and replicate the sun.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said:
Our customers are at the center of everything we do, and Apple Fifth Avenue is for them, to inspire them, and to provide the very best place to discover our newest products. It’s unique among Apple stores, and today it returns even more welcoming, and even more beautiful than ever. We’re so proud to be a part of this great city where so much happens every day.
The Always Open Apple Store
The store will be open 24/7, 365 days a year and employee 900 people. The Genius bar area has doubled to increase the number of people it can serve. There is a Forum that will host Today Apple sessions. These start Saturday, with a special series of events that Apple designed to capture New York’s Creative Spirit.
Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail + People said:
We couldn’t be more excited and more ready to welcome customers back to Apple Fifth Avenue. Not only is the new space and experience absolutely inspiring, our amazing retail Geniuses, Creative Pros and Specialists have worked so hard preparing for this day. Who they are, and the talents they bring, are so essential to the excellence we strive for at Apple.