Apple Store, Fifth Avenue

767 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10153

Living up to its “Think Different” motto, Apple unveiled flagship Store, Fifth Avenue in New York City. Located at 767 Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, the prominent site near FAO Schwarz and Bergdorf Goodman provides views of Central Park. 

The stores sell Macintosh personal computers, software, iPods, iPads, iPhones, third-party accessories, and other consumer electronics such as Apple TV.

The store occupies the underground retail concourse of the General Motors Building, with entry from the plaza level above. "The new plaza in front of the General Motors building on Fifth Avenue at 59th Street is a triumph of urban design." said James Gardner in the New York Sun. "Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, New York has a new public space that will prove to be a source of civic pride and aesthetic delight."

Designers Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and structural engineers Eckerlsey O'Callaghan (glass elements) in collaboration with Apple used Apple Stores' signature structural glass vertical circulation to entice plaza level passersby down to the store's underground main level. The 32-foot structural glass cube marking the store's entrance makes a bold architectural statement. Housing a transparent glass elevator wrapped by a circular glass stair, the transparent cube beckons potential customers down to the retail level below. By day it is a skylight bringing natural light underground, while at night the lighted cube is a sign. "It was in Apple's DNA to try to make something that no one else had the vision to create," said Ron Johnson, Apple's Senior Vice President of Retail.

Visitors descend the glass stair or travel in the all-glass elevator, entering a carefully tailored stainless steel and stone environment where Apple's products take center stage. Custom-designed wooden store fixtures, stainless steel ceiling and wall panels and an Italian stone floor make an elegant, yet restrained backdrop.

The Hill House Chair by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The Hill House Chair was designed in 1902-1903 by the Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh for the publisher W.W. Blackie.

Originally painted white, this high, narrow Hill House chair was meant to be decorative - not to be actually sat on.

The original still resides in the bedroom of the Hill House in Helensburgh.

Alvar Alto Paimio 1933

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Combining playful forms and experiments with advanced technologies, RON ARAD (1951-) has emerged as one of the most influential designers of our time.

Born in Tel Aviv, he moved to London in 1973 to study architecture and made his name in the early 1980s as a self-taught designer-maker of sculptural furniture.

He now works across both design and architecture. Consistently inventive and challenging, Ron Arad has studiously avoided categorization by curators and critics throughout his career.

Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture

Easily regarded as one of the most adroit architects of 20th century, Le Corbusier was a relentless designer, urban planner and writer dedicated to industrializing almost every city he came across.

This spring The Barbican - London’s colossal multi-arts venue - is hosting an all-encompassing showcase of Le Corbusier’s work, a survey which will include an abundance of original models, interior settings, drawings, furniture, photographs, films, tapestries, paintings, sculpture and books designed and written by the architect himself. More of a celebration than an exhibition, the festivities include concerts, films, guest speakers and a photo competition all in his honor.

6th Le Corbusier Research Center to be Built in India

The world is soon to have a new Le Corbusier research center/museum. It's been announced that the sixth such building will be constructed in Chandigarh, India, a city for which Corbusier laid out the master plan for in the 1950s. It's the second building in India, and it will feature a museum, like in all the other locations, but also plans to be a destination for architects and designers to work in their respective fields (though much more like a research library and most of it will have to do with the famous designer/architect himself). What's more, it will also be built to resemble and function in the way Le Corbusier would have likely wanted it designed, the planers hoping that it will resemble how things operated when the man was there working lo those many years ago.

Here's a bit:

The centre will be divided into six sections portraying the archival records, original plans, elevations, sketches and studies, maps and models, documents, photographs and furniture. Three rooms will serve as reception, reference and digital library with internet facility.

"We will establish a 'Chandigarh heritage conservation cell' for monitoring the conservation activity within the city. The materials that will be displayed in the centre will be collected on a permanent loan basis from various public, private and international institutions," he said.

The open courtyard would be used for the temporary exhibitions to promote ancient, medieval and Contemporary art and architecture in the region.

Dining Rooms

On Nantucket, Massachusetts, a couple commissioned Botticelli & Pohl Architects and interior designer Elissa Cullman to create their seaside retreat. “The dining room,” says Cullman, “with its hand-painted scenic canvas by Chuck Fischer, is the most vibrant room in the house.”



“The space itself was inspirational,” designer Charles Allem says of a penthouse he remade for a Manhattan couple. Walnut doors, fitted with bronze hardware, open to the dining room. Hanging over the expansive walnut table is an 18-foot-long bespoke fixture. Fabricated using 105 sandblasted-glass cylinders of varying heights, it gives off “incredible shades that reflect all over the room,” Allem remarks.



Art, books and light fill author and historian Barbara Goldsmith’s Manhattan apartment, designed by Mica Ertegun, of MAC II. “Instead of jewelry,” says Goldsmith, “books have become my Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” For the dining room/library, Ertegun bought an Art Déco table at a Paris flea market; the chairs were designed by MAC II. At rear is Three Weeks, 1957, by Larry Rivers.



Combining raw, native materials with a modern sensibility, interior designer Mariette Himes Gomez and architect Jim Morter created a singular retreat in Wyoming for Anne and Allen Dick and their children. An English Arts and Crafts leather screen adds texture to the dining area. The chairs, with a Larsen tweed, were designed by Gomez.