A stunning triple height, effortless and bespoke glass facade for Apple’s latest store in Miami’s new district of Aventura. The glass has been designed to withstand missile testing to ensure it is capable of protecting its occupants for whatever the hurricane season can throw at it.

Silver, Commercial, WAN Awards 2020

The sleek new Apple store in Aventura is prepared for whatever the hurricane season can throw at it. In this area of Florida, each frontage must be tested to ensure it will cope with debris picked up and thrown at it by the wind. However rather than use an off the shelf pre-approved façade system, Apple requested a bespoke glass frontage which then had to pass the missile testing process to obtain a one-time approval permit.

To achieve this, Eckersley O’Callaghan designed the new glass façade so that each new 3m high, 6m wide glass panel could withstand 50mm by 100mm, 2.4m long pine battens, being fired at it at 15m/s to protect the internal occupants. In the event of a storm should one of the panels be damaged, they have been designed to be the optimum size to be replaced easily and cost effectively.

To ensure the supporting framing for each piece of glass was kept as sleek as possible, Eckersley O’Callaghan designed the horizontal mullions to be simple, 203mm deep by 76mm high, solid steel bars rather than the less elegant large hollow sections which would have compromised the minimalist architectural vision. In addition, on the southern elevation there are no imposing columns, simply two vertical mullions.

Location
Miami, Florida

Client
Apple

Architect
Foster + Partners