Polishing the Apple

A world-renowned retail thoroughfare, New York’s Fifth Avenue has long been a mecca for tourists, locals and all those looking for an immersive high-end shopping experience. It has also been a magnet to those in the visual merchandising and store design industry, all gravitating to this hub of cutting-edge retail design and creativity. In its glory days as a corridor of high-end fashion and luxury storefronts, the avenue was dotted with exclusive names, such as Bonwit Teller & Co. and De Pinna. Still anchored by marquee retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany & Co., Cartier and Saks Fifth Avenue, it’s also home to other purveyors of luxury, such as Louis Vuitton, Armani, Valentino and Gucci.

In recent years, Fifth Avenue has become host to fast-fashion, with retailers such as H&M, Uniqlo, Zara and TopShop all wanting to plant their respective flags on this valuable stretch of real estate. Anchoring the famed avenue since 2006 has been the Apple store with its iconic glass cube exterior. Clearly an innovator in technology and product design, we certainly look to them for their innovative products, advertising and yes, store design. Everything they branded apple is beautifully designed; this is a brand that has clearly demonstrated that design not only matters, but it is also a profit center.

I was surprised a few months ago, while strolling by, to see the glass cube had suddenly vanished. How could this be? While it is commonly understood that Apple has been an incredible innovator in technology, even in how we live our lives, the brand has also had a dramatic impact on store design. And while the industry reverberates with talk of how technology is rocking a new retail formula, little has been said about the architectural trend in retail that is pervasive in new store builds and existing store remodels.

That trend, of course, is open glass façades, and Apple, who has led the charge in this age of communication, has expanded the dialogue between retailer and consumer with the simplicity of its transparent glass cube. With an understanding that the store is a tool of communication, smart retailers are following the “Apple lead” with glass façades that let light into store environments and allow the dialogue between retailer and customer to begin when he or she is still across the street.

While many theories abound relative to the inspiration behind the cube, some attribute it to The Manufacturers Trust Bank, also on Fifth Avenue, with its equally stunning glass façade. Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the firm that brought us the groundbreaking Lever House building on Park Avenue, this landmark structure was dubbed “a glass-sheathed supermarket of dollars,” by the AIA Guide to New York City. A prime example of modernism, the building was seen as a reference to honesty and transparency in the financial sector; a trusted place to build wealth.

In terms of wealth, the good news is that Apple will be spreading its creative currency even further as it redesigns the Fifth Avenue store. That redesign includes a bigger and better glass cube that will be positioned like a grand crystal on the grand avenue.

As I passed by the site recently, I saw that construction of the new and improved glass cube has begun. The talk is that lightwells will be installed across the Fifth Avenue plaza, allowing more natural light to enter the space below. Once again, Apple is shedding new light (literally) onto the way we live and the way we shop – and reminding us that design matters.

Eric Feigenbaum is a recognized leader in the visual merchandising and store design industries with both domestic and international design experience. He served as corporate director of visual merchandising for Stern’s Department Store, a division of Federated Department Stores, from 1986 to 1995. After Stern’s, he assumed the position of director of visual merchandising for WalkerGroup/CNI, an architectural design firm in New York City. Feigenbaum was also an adjunct professor of Store Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and formerly served as the chair of the Visual Merchandising Department at LIM College (New York) from 2000 to 2015. In addition to being the Editorial Advisor/New York Editor of VMSD magazine, Eric is also a founding member of PAVE (A Partnership for Planning and Visual Education). Currently, he is also president and director of creative services for his own retail design company, Embrace Design.