Apple Outlines Boston Store Plans to Commissioners

Apple vice-president of retail development Bob Bridger appeared before a Boston district architectural commission Wednesday night to outline the company’s plans for a flagship store on Boylston Street that could open in 2007. And amazgingly, it looks just like the failed Flatiron (NYC) concept that heritage-types in that city turned down. A story in the Boston Globe said Bridger described in words a 3-story store with an all-glass front and green roof, but only after a demolition of the existing building. Commissioners of the Back Bay Architectural Commission were not enthusiastic with the design, or the proposal to demolish the current building. Attorney Stephen V. Miller, whose firm Apple hired to guide the project through Boston’s bureaucracy, warned that the store would be a ”non-starter” if permission isn’t granted to demolish the existing building. In New York City, Apple cancelled its plans for a Flatiron District store after architectural objections by a city commission, and in Portland Apple continues to revise architectural plans for approval by a similar board.