Wonka-style Apple flagship proposed for Melbourne's Fun Factory site (images)
Exclusive: A glass-crowned Apple flagship shop is part of lavish $200 million redevelopment project targeting a one-time amusement center in the Australian city of Melbourne, a design proposal shown to AppleInsider have revealed.
According to design documents, a cubed-shaped Apple store, reminiscent of the company's flagship location in San Francisco, would consume the largest chunk of space within the retail plaza. It would lay adjacent to both the hotel and apartment complex, interconnecting with those buildings at the podium level by a distinct and suspended translucent space frame characterized by circular, interconnecting rings.
The Melbourne site, if approved, would give way to just the second Apple-owned retail shop in Australia. Development planning for an initial location at 77 King Street in Sydney was confirmed for the first time earlier this week and said to be in the final stages. There, the iPod maker has proposed a three-story shop at the base of a sky-rise, clad by a similarly proportioned glass atrium along the frontal facade.
The Fun Factory building in South Yarra is believed to have been built in the late 1880s to house the Toorak cable tram system. However, when the system was electrified in 1926, the building fell into disrepair and turned vacant till it was taken over in 1933 by Capitol Bakeries. It reopened again to much fanfare in 1979 as the Fun Factory — then one of Melbourne's largest amusement centers. Recently, the majority of the building has again turned dormant, a furniture retailer, burger joint, and arcade withstanding.
For Apple, its decent on Australia's retail scene will clear just one of several international targets caught within its cross-hairs. Over the next two years, the Cupertino-based firm is also expected to turn up inaugural shops in Italy, Scotland, France, and Germany. Its current fleet of 170 stores stretches the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Japan.
Apple Store design proposal for Fun Factory site in Melbourne, Australia.
51 Comments
Looks pretty nice, but small in comparison to the other buildings next to it.
Looks cool. I'd love to go there and see it in person.
Hope it will be done by the time I go there for my honeymoon (yeah, it's a ways away). It looks great!
"Honey, remember when I bought you that beautiful (expensive) ring? I've been thinking of a way you could get me something LIKE an engagement ring... only more computerish. Oh LOOK! An Apple Store!"
Fun factory, indeed.
Oh my God....I live on Chapel Street! I had no idea they were going to knock down the FF. I can see there being heritage objections, so I wonder how far the planning application process has got. It's a nice old building but not well used, a burger joint and video arcade (hence the "fun" I suppose) for years, quite out of keeping with the ritzy location. I'm impressed with AI's local knowledge and history of the site.
I'm a little surprised Apple's first store here would be in the suburbs not the city centre, but Chapel Street is the premier shopping strip in Australia so it makes sense to be there. Good for me too - I can walk there or catch a tram.