The 9m high glass cube is the iconic entrance to Apple’s subterranean, flagship store in the heart of New York.
Over the nine years between cube 1, 2 and 3 Apple, Eckersley O’Callaghan and glass processors Seele Sedak developed a number of design, fabrication and connection technologies . The second Cube, was an opportunity to collate the latest in structural glass design and fabrication in order to enhance its transparency.
The first cube in 2006 comprised 164 glass units with 250 primary fixings. In 2011 an entirely new and structurally simplified 10m tall glass cube was engineered to 15 glass units and 40 fixings, exemplifying the latest pioneering technologies in structural glass that we have developed with Apple. The design was awarded it’s own patent in 2010.
The concept of metallic inserts being laminated in the glass build up has also been advanced further to the extent that more sophisticated details have been developed that facilitate entirely embedded joints. These developed connection concepts evolved through their use in a number of Apple store locations globally.
In 2019, the store underwent a significant transformation to double its size and introduce 62 skylights and 18 skylenses into the surrounding plaza and bring in natural daylight to the store below. We provided the design of a new staircase which departs from the previous all glass stair template that we developed, and is made from mirror polished stainless steel treads which have been machined out of single blocks of steel.
© Eckersley O’Callaghan 2024
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