Waterside Store - Pre-Open

The Waterside (Naples, Fla.) store opens March 9, 2007, and the construction barricade was removed the week before, revealing a new architectural feature--a stainless steel façade with back-lit Apple logo. In earlier enclosed malls, Apple has used black metal with a back-lit logo for the façade, but never bead-blasted stainless steel. The long-view of the storefront (bottom of page) shows why Apple did this--the store is shoe-horned into a space with no space above the storefront to show the logo or the stainless steel.

Five days before the Waterside store opening, workers removed the construction barricade, revealing a unique feature--a stainless steel façade with a back-lit Apple logo. This architecture has not been used before on the outside of a store. The area to the left appears to be the front display window, covered by brown paper.

Here's a closer look at the exterior front of the store, showing the logo and stainless steel. Ahhh...the handprints.

The interior of the store is barely visible, but you can see the wooden display tables and the Genius Bar
at the rear of the store.

This is an unusual situation for Apple's stores: a space that doesn't provide enough vertical space for the trademark stainless steel above the door and display windows, or the backlit Apple logo. In fact, this is perhaps the most low-key store in the chain for displaying the brand.

A view from the right side of the new store, showing how little of the traditional store architectural elements are visible at Waterside. That big wall and Apple logo are pretty much the only element saying "Apple."