The long-rumored Apple store at the gateway to the North Michigan Avenue shopping district won’t be a 2.0 version of the famous glass cube that forms an iconic entry into the retailer’s Fifth Avenue flagship in Manhattan. It will be more like a high-tech version of Frank Lloyd Wright’s quintessentially Midwestern Prairie Style homes, with river views to boot.
Soon-to-be-unveiled plans for the store call for a glass-sheathed temple of computing near the historic Michigan Avenue bridge and grand flights of stairs that will cascade from street level to the walkway along the Chicago River’s north bank. These details are outlined in a report from the city’s Department of Planning and Development, a draft copy of which was obtained by the Tribune.
The proposal will replace a vacant food court at the 401 N. Michigan Ave. office building with a 20,000-square-foot store that overlooks the river and its flotillas of architectural tour boats. An Apple spokesman confirmed late Tuesday that the plan is for an Apple store and said the company wants to start construction next year.
The Zeller Realty Group, owner of 401 N. Michigan Ave., is scheduled to present the proposal Thursday to the Chicago Plan Commission. The presentation is a formality because the planning department on Monday approved the proposal, according to a department spokesman. Apple has a deal to be Zeller’s tenant for the project, the Apple spokesman said.
The spokesman, Nick Leahy, confirmed that the Apple plan was drawn up by the London-based architectural firm Foster + Partners, headed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster. The Foster firm designed Apple’s under-construction headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., a vast ring-shaped building that has been compared to a spaceship, as well as Apple stores in Istanbul and China.
According to the planning department report, the entry pavilion of the Chicago flagship store will be 14 feet high, roughly half the height of the famous glass cube that leads to the popular, below-ground Apple store on Fifth Avenue. That cube has no discernible roof. In Chicago, echoing Wright’s Prairie Houses, an ultra-thin roof will be the prime architecture feature of the store’s street-level entry pavilion.
Apple has occupied its existing Chicago flagship, a converted four-story building at 679 N. Michigan, since 2003. The new store, with its high-profile riverfront setting, will give the company much greater visibility — and, potentially, higher sales.
The existing street-level plaza at 401 N. Michigan, known as Pioneer Court and occupying the upper level of bi-level Michigan Avenue, is best known for hosting a variety of large-scale public sculptures, including an oversized version of Marilyn Monroe. The entry pavilion to the Apple store will be located at the plaza’s southern end. It will measure nearly 91 feet by 71 feet.
The pavilion’s roof, reinforced by high-strength carbon-fiber, will provide shade, reducing cooling loads during the summer months. The design “will blur the line between interior and exterior space,” the report says.
Pedestrians will enter the pavilion at street level and proceed downward, via stairs or an elevator, to a sales floor.
To make way for the new stairs leading to the riverwalk, existing classically styled railings at the plaza’s southern edge and a curving flight of outdoor stairs will be demolished. The arrangement will echo a new stretch of riverwalk on the south bank of the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle streets. But unlike that section of riverwalk, whose steps almost descend to water level, the riverwalk south of the Apple store will remain several feet above the river.
The store’s glass walls will rise 32 feet above the riverwalk.
The proposed roof appears to depart from city standards that state new developments must be set back at least 30 feet from the river. That standard, though, is not ironclad. City officials permitted the Trump International Hotel & Tower to rise alongside the river rather than being set back from it.
The planned Apple development could be a boon for the neighborhood, helping shift the retail focus further south on Michigan Avenue and providing a catalyst for a number of nearby projects, including plans to redevelop the adjacent Tribune Tower property.
Tribune Media announced last month it has hired real estate investment banker Eastdil Secured to explore an outright sale or a partnership for a multiuse redevelopment of the 36-story neo-Gothic tower just north of Pioneer Court.
Just across the river at 360 N. Michigan Ave., Oxford Capital is redeveloping the landmarked London Guarantee & Accident Building and an adjacent parcel into the upscale LondonHouse hotel above two stories of retail.
Gail Spreen, immediate past president of the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents, said she first learned about the proposal when Zeller made a presentation to her nonprofit community group in August. At the time, the developer did not name Apple as the tenant, Spreen said.
SOAR has not taken an official position on the proposal, Spreen said, but suggested support, adding, “we’re all about activating the plazas and improving the riverwalk and lower Michigan Avenue.”
Spreen said the group would like to see Zeller clean, paint and light the columns of lower Michigan Avenue. Their biggest concern, however, may be the replacement of frequent public art displays in Pioneer Courtwith a more commercial and ongoing display.
“We hope Pioneer Court doesn’t become one big Apple sign,” Spreen said.
