Renderings Show Off Apple's New Retail Store Alongside Chicago River

The Chicago Tribune has obtained an exclusive first look at Apple's planned new flagship store in Chicago, which will be placed alongside the Chicago River. The new store will "echo" legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style homes, which Wright pioneered near the city.

chicagoapplestore2
The store will be located near the historic Michigan Bridge and include a "grand flight of stairs" that will go from street-level to a walkway alongside the Chicago River's north bank. On the street-level side, the store will have an entry pavilion that's 14-feet high. Pedestrians entering from N. Michigan Avenue will have to proceed downward onto the sales floor via stairs or an elevator.

The new flagship will have glass walls with a thin, high-strength carbon fiber roof. The 20,000 square-foot store will replace a vacant food court, and an Apple spokesman confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that it wants to start construction next year. The Tribune notes that the new store could be a "boon for the neighborhood", shifting retail focus on Michigan Avenue further south and encouraging development of future architectural projects in the area.

chicagoapplestore
The store is being headed by Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, Apple's frequent architectural partner and the firm in charge of its new Cupertino headquarters. Apple is scheduled to present a proposal on the new store to the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday, but a department spokesman told the Tribune that the presentation is a formality as the planning department has already approved the proposal. Additionally, Apple already has a deal in place with Zeller Realty Group, the owner of the territory the new Apple Store will reside on.

Apple's current flagship store in Chicago is the four-story North Michigan Avenue store, which it has occupied since 2003. According to the Tribune, the new flagship could give Apple greater visibility in the area and higher sales. More renderings of the new store can be seen at the Chicago Tribune's website.

Popular Stories

iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

farewelwilliams Avatar
125 months ago
iPad Pro 2 features a larger screen with a wooden material on the back side
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tonewheel Avatar
125 months ago
And being Chicago, they better use bulletproof glass.
Clearly not from Chicago.

The horrific problems planted in your mind occur in two neighborhoods... "Back of the Yards" and Englewood. As a lifelong resident, I never venture into those areas, and neither would tourists. You'd never be exposed to it.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iZac Avatar
125 months ago
Looks like someone ironed the Rogers Welsh Assembly :P

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jlc1978 Avatar
125 months ago
Chicago is a city in love with architecture and has many interesting buildings designed by great architects. Looks like this will fit right in.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
b1wils1 Avatar
125 months ago
Cue comments on 'more focus on software, watch is a flop, hate aTV commercials, Tim Cook needs to be ousted, blah blah' in 3...2...1
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lowendlinux Avatar
125 months ago
Looks nice
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)