Mike Wuerthele
After a year of renovations, the Regent Street Apple store in London is opening on Oct. 15, and members of the press were given a sneak peek of the interior prior to the big day.
In the first stages of the renovation in 2015 and early 2016, the store had been conducting business from the basement, however the shop has been completely shut down since June 13.
The new ground floor renovation has has added 12 trees, and circular sofas for customers. The new upstairs "loft" area houses the "Creative Pros" area of the store, for consultation with Apple experts on specialty software and other business needs.
Apple routinely shuts down and renovates its retail stores, but the Regent Street modifications is much more extensive than other efforts with major structural modifications, facade alteration, and central staircase replacement made on the historic building.
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24 Comments
Hope they have someone to clean the leaves on those huge plants periodically. In public spaces the dust that gathers is mostly shed human skin cells and they definitely collect on plant leaves. Decades ago I had a job with an interior plant design company. I took care of plants in various offices all around Houston. The plants at the Southwest Airlines Terminal were completely covered in dust every week, which I had to wipe off. It was much later that I learned of what that dust was comprised. Yuck.
And BTW I don't really like those plants in the store. Too big and seem to be in the way. And just wait until the plants get aphids or scale on them (which they will). Then you get a rain of excreted, sticky honeydew in the area below the plant. Won't that look great on the screen of an iPad or the keyboard of a MacBook. I'm betting those plants will be gone in a year.
Love the trees.
Talking to employees the trees actually get swapped every 3-6 months or so and get taken to a sanctuary somewhere.
The fabric lighting panels are by Philips and do adjust depending on the ambient lighting. The lighting in general at this store is really nice, walked past last night they have spots angled on the trees so that the shadows created by the leaves are projected onto the pillars and floor around
Now we wait on pictures from the future staff (of the 'interior' no doubt).