At the Santa Monica Planning Commission tonight, Apple is believed to be proposing a dramatic new Apple Retail Store on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. As first noted by Curbed, the proposal is from an unnamed retailer who is seeking to construct a new 8,084 square foot commercial building in the place of an existing three story Borders Bookstore.
The applicant is listed as "Howard Robinson" and the property owner as ASB/Blatteis Promenade Holdings, LLC, but one look at the renderings (above and below), and it's clear that this is an Apple Retail store project.
The proposal (PDF) is for a one-story, 34-foot high commercial building with an "expansive floor-to-ceiling height accentuated by a transparent glass ceiling." The front will be entirely glass that will project from stone paneled side walls. A 5,210 sq foot basement will also be included.
The applicant also intends to implement a transportation program for employees to travel to and from the store using alternative modes of transportation. Full-time employees will be offered $100 monthly transit subsidy and a $20/month bicycle reimbursement subsidy as well as bicycle parking in the basement level.
Apple has been making some major upgrades to their retail stores in the recent months. Their 5th Avenue Store in New York is undergoing a $6.6 million upgrade while a new Grand Central project has also been making headlines.
Apple, of course, already has an Apple Retail store on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, but it has been said to get very crowded on weekends, so this may represent an upgrade and replacement to the existing store.
Wednesday February 19, 2025 8:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today introduced the iPhone 16e, its newest entry-level smartphone. The device succeeds the third-generation iPhone SE, which has now been discontinued.
The iPhone 16e features a larger 6.1-inch OLED display, up from a 4.7-inch LCD on the iPhone SE. The display has a notch for Face ID, and this means that Apple no longer sells any iPhones with a Touch ID fingerprint button, marking the ...
Tuesday February 18, 2025 12:02 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Over the years, Apple has switched from an aluminum frame to a stainless steel frame to a titanium frame for its highest-end iPhones. And now, it has been rumored that Apple will go back to using aluminum for three out of four iPhone 17 models.
In an investor note with research firm GF Securities, obtained by MacRumors this week, Apple supply chain analyst Jeff Pu said the iPhone 17, iPhone...
Thursday February 20, 2025 5:06 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Now that Apple has announced its new more affordable iPhone 16e, our thoughts turn to what else we are expecting from the company this spring.
There are three product categories that we are definitely expecting to get upgraded before spring has ended. Keep reading to learn what they are. If we're lucky, Apple might make a surprise announcement about a completely new product category.
M4...
Wednesday February 19, 2025 11:38 am PST by Juli Clover
Following the launch of the iPhone 16e, Apple updated its iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia pages to give a narrower timeline on when the next updates are set to launch.
All three pages now state that new Apple Intelligence features and languages will launch in early April, an update from the more broader April timeframe that Apple provided before. The next major point updates will be iOS ...
Thursday February 13, 2025 8:07 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In a social media post today, Apple CEO Tim Cook teased an upcoming "launch" of some kind scheduled for Wednesday, February 19.
"Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," he said, with an #AppleLaunch hashtag.
The post includes a short video with an animated Apple logo inside a circle.
Cook did not provide an exact time for the launch, or share any other specific details, so...
Apple today announced its first custom cellular modem with the name "C1," debuting in the all-new iPhone 16e.
The new modem contributes to the iPhone 16e's power efficiency, giving it the longest battery life of any iPhone with a 6.1-inch display, such as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16.
Expanding the benefits of Apple silicon, C1 is the first modem designed by Apple and the most...
Tuesday February 18, 2025 8:46 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is permanently closing its retail store at the Northbrook Court shopping mall in the Chicago area. The company confirmed the upcoming closure today in a statement, but it has yet to provide a closing date for the location.
Apple Northbrook opened in 2005, and the store moved to a larger space in the mall in 2017.
Apple confirmed that affected employees will continue to work for the...
In the UK, we have something called 'planning permission'. And there's no way a glass roof would be approved in an earthquake zone! (not that we have large quakes in the UK...)
If they are allowed to construct such a building then it's madness and puts everyone inside at risk.
Modern buildings built in earthquake zones are built to very strict standards and are very safe. Take the huge earthquake in Japan this year - it was one of the 5 largest earthquakes ever recorded since 1900, but virtually all the deaths were from the resultant Tsunami, not the earthquake. Countless glass towers hundreds of meters high in Tokyo survived with little or no damage.
In addition, modern safety glass of the type used in commercial buildings is very strong. In fact, concrete is often reinforced with glass fibers to make it stronger. Even in the unlikely event that something did cause it to fail, it breaks into small harmless pellets - NOT razor sharp shards.
Do you really think that Apple's architects don't know what they're doing and/or aren't familiar with California building codes?
