Apple Tower Theatre designed by Foster + Partners opens in downtown Los Angeles
Apple Tower Theatre, Apple’s newest store in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, has opened to visitors. The design seeks to reinvigorate one of LA’s most historic movie theaters by giving the building a new purpose and restoring its lost glory. The unveiling of Apple Tower Theatre is a significant part of the larger urban regeneration of downtown LA that will strengthen urban retail and community life in this part of the city.
The design is the result of a close collaboration between the design teams at Apple and Foster + Partners.
Designed in 1927, by prolific motion picture theater designer, S Charles Lee, Tower Theatre was the first movie theater in Los Angeles built to show talking movies. The design restores the distinctive clock tower and exterior terracotta facades, enhances historic interiors and improves the marquees and the Broadway Street elevation, while upgrading accessibility to ensure the building will survive and serve the community long into the future.
Stefan Behling, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, said: “I believe that people love being with people. This is the basis for urbanity all around the world. Apple Tower Theatre will be a new beacon of optimism and resilience for the city and a vote of confidence in Downtown LA. The design brings back the romance and excitement of the birth of cinema, recreating the idea of the ‘place to be’. The exquisite detailing of the interior has been painstakingly restored. From today, Apple Tower Theatre will once again be alive with activity and celebrations that will return the vitality of urban life to Downtown LA.”
The design looks to create an active presence on Broadway. Visitors enter a generous lobby at street level. An immaculately restored grand staircase takes visitors to the upper levels, while the lobby opens up to the soaring volume of the main theatre hall at ground level, which has been completely transformed into a majestic display area. The intricate historic plaster detailing on the walls and ceiling, dating back to the 1920s, has been carefully restored and enhanced. The central dome of the theater’s ceiling has been reinterpreted with a fresco of the calming golden sunshine of the southern Californian sky, adding dynamism and color to the space.
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Sanlitun is a vibrant urban quarter in Beijing, home to Apple’s first store in China built in 2008. Relocating to a more prominent site adjacent to the previous, Apple Sanlitun seeks to create a new dialogue with the surrounding pedestrian streets, addressing the large open square that is a social focus for the district.
Drawing on the vibrant energy of the area, Apple Sanlitun has a porous building envelope that opens out onto all four sides and connects to the multi-layered circulation network. The principal glazed façade facing the central square floods the display areas inside with natural light. Two monumental stone staircases on either side of the store lead up to the Genius Grove on the upper level. Lined with trees that add greenery to the perimeter, the glazed façade to the rear allows light into the space and dematerialises the boundary between the inside and the outside. The Forum, situated within the grand upper level, forms an animated backdrop to the space, which steps down with integrated upholstered leather seating forming a viewing gallery for the lively square outside.
The store is protected by a large overhanging roof providing shelter from the heavy rain and intense summer sun. 390 square-metres of integrated rooftop photovoltaic panels partially offset the energy consumption of the store and a bespoke integrated ceiling system seamlessly houses ventilation, cooling, fire protection equipment and lighting equipment. Additional energy saving measures include advanced façade design, optimised air conditioning and efficient lighting systems.
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