|
General Motors Building (NYC) Store Apple is scheduled to open a store in mid-town Manhattan (NYC) during early summer of 2006 (May?), in the underground retail plaza of the General Motors Building (767 Fifth Ave.). The store will feature a spectacular 32-foot glass cube entrance at ground level, with a spiral glass staircase leading to a 25,000 square-foot store beneath the plaza. Over the past year I've collected lots of other details about the store. The building's location is significant: it's at the southeast corner of Central Park, creating a vehicular and pedestrian crossroads, and also panoramic focus point for anyone approaching the intersection. Your attention is immediately turned to the elegant Plaza Hotel, the Pulitzer Fountain that creates a traffic square, and the GM Building. The FAO Schwartz store and CBS-TV studios on the ground floor of the GM Building are a magnet for shoppers and tourists, especially during the Christmas season and morning TV show times. The GM Building is on the site of the former Savoy Plaza Hotel, an elegant, 33-story building that is now represented only by the adjacent Sherry-Netherland hotel and the Plaza Hotel across the street. The Savoy was torn down in 1964 and construction began on the current 50-story office building, which was completed in 1968. The building features a single narrow tower sprouting from a wider, two-story base that spans 58th to 59th streets. The tower features vertical marble facing with glass in between. The building is set back from Fifth In 1999 GM abandoned its showroom space and the CBS-TV "Morning Show" moved its studio into the northern wing. At the same time, the building was sold to Donald Trump, who began a renovation by architects Leclere Associates Associates and Thomas Balsley Associates that included filling in the sunken plaza to create retail spaces, and raising the level of the plaza above the sidewalk [rendering]. But the retail space didn't attract tenants and the plaza's height didn't invite visitors. In 2003 Trump sold the building to the current owners, Macklowe Properties, for $1.4 billion, a record for an office building at the time. In March 2003 Macklowe announced another renovation of the plaza, based mostly on plans by Apple to build a retail store within the underground plaza space, and to erect a huge glass entry-way at street level for the store. The renovation also included building additional retail space on the back, Madison Avenue side of the building that Macklowe intends to lease out to tenants.
The Times' Sr. Real Estate Writer David W. Dunlap wrote that the 32-foot glass cube, "will be set like a jumbo gemstone into the middle of the plaza." From the outside the cube will appear empty, he wrote, "But inside will be a circular glass stairway and a cylindrical elevator leading to a 25,000-square-foot underground space." He said the design was mocked up one midnight in Dec. 2004 so that building owner Harry Macklowe could judge the size and shape of the cube--he evidently gave his approval. Dunlap quoted Amanda M. Burden, chair of the City Planning Commission, saying that the glass cube would have minimal signage. When asked what would appear on the cube, Harry Macklowe said, "Nothing. It's word of mouth." Interestingly, a "New York" magazine story said that Steve Jobs himself designed the glass cube, that it cost $9 million, and that Jobs negotiated with Macklowe to retain ownership of the cube when the 20-year store lease expired. Jobs did agree to build a comparable structure before taking the cube away, the story noted. The story also said that Macklowe flew Jobs back to New York City twice, and offered him below market-value rent for the retail space, which it reported as $1,000 per square-foot (per year). During the a Jan. 2006 financial conference call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the store would open in "fiscal 2006," while other sources say it will open in "the spring." Latest tipster reports put the opening on or about May 13th.
[construction March 2005] [Oct. 28 report] [construction photos] [building details] |
Avenue, creating a plaza which architect Edward Durell Stone designed as sunken by 12 feet, with steps leading down from the sidewalk. The two-story side wings of the building's base have been occupied by various retail tenants over the years, including General Motors on the north side and FAO Schwartz on the south side.
A long March 2005 "New York Times" article said the plaza was designed by Dan Shannon of Moed de Armas & Shannon, and described it as being, "on a single level from 58th to 59th Streets, framed at each corner by low-wide, L-shaped parapets." It will have two shallow pools flanking a 32-foot square glass cube set into the center of the plaza.
Check the Macklowe Properties