At the Santa Monica Planning Commission tonight, Apple is believed to be proposing a dramatic new Apple Retail Store on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. As first noted by Curbed, the proposal is from an unnamed retailer who is seeking to construct a new 8,084 square foot commercial building in the place of an existing three story Borders Bookstore.
The applicant is listed as "Howard Robinson" and the property owner as ASB/Blatteis Promenade Holdings, LLC, but one look at the renderings (above and below), and it's clear that this is an Apple Retail store project.
The proposal (PDF) is for a one-story, 34-foot high commercial building with an "expansive floor-to-ceiling height accentuated by a transparent glass ceiling." The front will be entirely glass that will project from stone paneled side walls. A 5,210 sq foot basement will also be included.
The applicant also intends to implement a transportation program for employees to travel to and from the store using alternative modes of transportation. Full-time employees will be offered $100 monthly transit subsidy and a $20/month bicycle reimbursement subsidy as well as bicycle parking in the basement level.
Apple has been making some major upgrades to their retail stores in the recent months. Their 5th Avenue Store in New York is undergoing a $6.6 million upgrade while a new Grand Central project has also been making headlines.
Apple, of course, already has an Apple Retail store on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, but it has been said to get very crowded on weekends, so this may represent an upgrade and replacement to the existing store.
Following nearly two years of rumors about a fourth-generation iPhone SE, The Information today reported that Apple suppliers are finally planning to begin ramping up mass production of the device in October of this year. If accurate, that timeframe would mean that the next iPhone SE would not be announced alongside the iPhone 16 series in September, as expected. Instead, the report...
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Wednesday July 24, 2024 9:06 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today shared alleged specifications for a new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model rumored to launch next year. Kuo expects the device to be equipped with a 6.6-inch display with a current-size Dynamic Island, a standard A19 chip rather than an A19 Pro chip, a single rear camera, and an Apple-designed 5G chip. He also expects the device to have a...
Thursday July 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple’s iCloud Private Relay service is down for some users, according to Apple’s System Status page. Apple says that the iCloud Private Relay service may be slow or unavailable. The outage started at 2:34 p.m. Eastern Time, but it does not appear to be affecting all iCloud users. Some impacted users are unable to browse the web without turning iCloud Private Relay off, while others are...
In the UK, we have something called 'planning permission'. And there's no way a glass roof would be approved in an earthquake zone! (not that we have large quakes in the UK...)
If they are allowed to construct such a building then it's madness and puts everyone inside at risk.
Modern buildings built in earthquake zones are built to very strict standards and are very safe. Take the huge earthquake in Japan this year - it was one of the 5 largest earthquakes ever recorded since 1900, but virtually all the deaths were from the resultant Tsunami, not the earthquake. Countless glass towers hundreds of meters high in Tokyo survived with little or no damage.
In addition, modern safety glass of the type used in commercial buildings is very strong. In fact, concrete is often reinforced with glass fibers to make it stronger. Even in the unlikely event that something did cause it to fail, it breaks into small harmless pellets - NOT razor sharp shards.
Do you really think that Apple's architects don't know what they're doing and/or aren't familiar with California building codes?
