The early history of Apple Lincoln Road
Apple's Art Deco arrival on Miami Beach.
Apple Lincoln Road was one of the first locations that sparked my interest in Apple Retail. The store’s Art Deco entrance earned it top billing on apple.com/retail/storelist in 2009 while I was reorganizing a family road trip around how many Apple Stores I could potentially coax my parents into visiting. I took this screenshot on my iPod touch because I was so impressed:
When Apple Lincoln Road opened on July 21, 2006, few Apple Stores had wandered free of car-centric shopping centers into walkable downtown districts. Apple preferred to build from scratch when possible and spent little time talking about its few historic stores. That’s why you probably know very little about the history of 738 Lincoln Road and its importance in shaping Apple’s preservation efforts today. The project wasn’t without its missteps.
Early in my Miami Beach research I discovered photos of 738 Lincoln Road in the 1930s. Aside from the roadway, which was open to vehicles until 1960, everything looks remarkably similar to today. It’s comforting to imagine that the storefronts were perfectly preserved for the past 90 years. According to architecture firm Shulman + Associates, the building was originally a Chrysler showroom.
My reality was shattered when I dug up this old report on Apple’s Miami Beach plans from the ifoAppleStore archives. At some point, 70-year tenant Moseley’s Linens clearly removed the entire building facade and replaced it with streamlined stone panels. Another photo from the Florida International University collection confirmed the store’s tired exterior through the early 2000s.
Apple’s arrival marked an uncelebrated complete reconstruction of the original Art Deco entrance in remarkable detail. A construction album on Flickr shows scaffolding rising above the existing roofline to fabricate elements long ago destroyed. Apple and Shulman + Associates didn’t have to rely on guesswork to get the details right — a nearly identical side entrance to the building already existed on Meridian Avenue. (A new residential tower behind the store was planned but never built.)
Inside, things weren’t as sunny. The beautiful stepped ceilings and hanging chandeliers of Moseley’s Linens completely vanished under Apple’s plan. The interior design was anonymous. Miami? Memphis? Milwaukee? They were all the same. Even the arched entry window Apple added was hidden by the lowered ceiling. Nothing illustrates Apple’s changed attitude toward historic preservation and growing maturity as a technology company better than the nuances of Apple Lincoln Road’s construction. It would be so much different today.
By 2011, Apple had already outgrown the store and proposed construction of a Highland Village twin at 1001 Lincoln Road. The proposal was rejected by the city’s preservation board, and Apple scrapped the plans. By the time the current store at 1021 Lincoln Road was approved and opened in April 2015, Apple and Touzet Studio had devised a design that matched the scale of surrounding buildings on Lincoln Road, used unique materials, and celebrated the energy of Miami with a grand opening mural.
In a somewhat ironic twist, T-Mobile has hollowed out Apple’s old space and restored some of the details that were covered up. Sunlight now pours through the arched window above the entryway, and the paneled ceiling disappeared to partially reveal the original stepped ceiling from Moseley’s Linens. The rest of the fixtures… leave something to be desired.
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I didn't know anything about this location until I read this. I'm glad that Apple extends the attention to restoration to the interiors now as well.