A toast to the ghosts
Forgotten Apple Stores beckon from beyond the grave.
Legend has it that if you hang around Apple Park’s Caffè Macs on a cold, wet October night, you can still hear the applause. Knock on the glass, count backward from ten, and it’ll start — the chilling applause of a lost new store opening echoing through the concentric halls.
Every few years, frighteningly good plans for a new Apple Store are announced and snuffed out before construction begins. Sometimes Apple’s strategy changes, and sometimes bureaucratic roadblocks leave a city on the trick end of a treat.
On this All Hallows’ Eve eve, I’m taking a look back at the fleet of ghost ships that haunt Apple Retail.
Kungsträdgården
Here’s one that still scares the daylights out of me. In 2018, the Stockholm City Council booted Apple’s plans, sparing a shabby TGI Fridays in Kungsträdgården, a park in central Stockholm. The planned store would’ve been one of Apple’s most fantastic, with architecture resembling Xinyi A13 and a serene public setting unrivaled save for Piazza Liberty.
After a detailed model of the store and several design revisions failed to sway the city, Apple sought to sell the property. Today it’s easy to get some onion rings downtown, but that iPhone repair is a twenty-minute drive north to Täby Centrum.
Federation Square v1, v2
No canceled store was more hotly debated than Apple Federation Square. In 2017, Apple and Foster + Partners announced plans to construct a massive multilevel pavilion in the heart of Melbourne, Australia. Federation Square is a landmark public space adjacent to the Yarra River, making the proposed Apple Store a world-class location like Apple Michigan Avenue and Union Square.
Project plans called for demolition of the Yarra Building and displacement of its tenant, the Koorie Heritage Trust. Melbourne wouldn’t have it. In 2018, the plans were totally redrawn to address feedback and criticism from citizens and city leaders. They nicknamed it the “Pizza Hut pagoda,” which is either a devastating burn, or, if you’re a BOOK IT! millennial, a ringing endorsement. A detailed public preview of the project was offered, but the store was doomed.
The One
Earlier this month, CityNews reported that Apple finally gave up on The One, a much-delayed skyscraper currently under construction in Toronto. To my knowledge, Apple never publicly announced its intent to become the ground-floor retail anchor of the building, but it was Toronto construction’s biggest open secret.
If The One is truly done, I’d be surprised if Apple simply became impatient due to construction delays. The company has been to known to sit on projects indefinitely in pursuit of perfect real estate. What *feels* right to me is that market conditions changed, Apple’s strategy evolved, and The One became untenable before completion. If the store had opened on time, Apple might be smiling through the tears of an eye-watering investment.
Here’s what the store shell looked like inside last year.
Tysons Galleria
In 2019, Fairfax County plans revealed an anonymous retail space at Tysons Galleria almost certainly planned by Apple. Tysons Galleria is within walking distance of Tysons Corner Center, and for a moment it seemed that a store relocation was in order. Somewhere along the way, the plans gave way to…
Tysons Corner 2.0 (v1)
Two years post-Galleria, Reston Skylines published a rendering of a plaza-level Apple Store at Tysons Corner Center with a plank ceiling and limestone walls. Intricate blueprints later published online in an architecture portfolio detailed how the demolition of a shuttered Lord & Taylor store would allow Apple to offer interior and plaza entrances. The store was to feature a skylit Forum with trees and a central Boardroom with sliding glass doors — just like Apple Cherry Creek.
The vacant Lord & Taylor was still standing when I visited Tysons Corner in May, and the new Vintage E store is located in the same space the previous design was planned for.
Deep cuts: Apple Union Square and Brussels (Vintage C)
The earliest renderings presented in San Francisco for Apple Union Square depicted the store lacking its signature Avenues, Forum, and sliding glass doors. Months later, Apple West Lake in Hangzhou, China opened with an almost identical design.
In 2021, I discovered the above rendering of Apple Brussels that predates the “New” Store Design the store premiered. The photo has since been deleted. Complete with Genius Bar logos, classic feature bays, and a dash of Mac OS X Leopard, the space looks remarkably old. Perhaps this grave is better left undisturbed.
Featured image
Apple 丸の内
Photo via @tmc400.
The Vintage C Apple Brussels... Thank you, Angela. NSD looks far better.