The recently opened flagship Apple Store in Chicago, with its MacBook Pro-inspired carbon fiber roof, was apparently designed without the city's chilling winters in mind.
The design flaw has forced the closure of community areas that the Apple Store itself created due to the danger of falling snow and ice.
Apple Store Chicago Dangerous Design Flaw
The new Apple Store on the Chicago riverfront has received praise for its design of pure glass walls and slender steel columns, but the arrival of the winter season has exposed a dangerous flaw.
London-based architects Foster + Partners may have forgotten to consider the snow and ice that envelops Chicago during winter. The Apple Store's ultra-thin roof was not fitted with any gutters to catch water, so melting snow is now forming icicles and sliding off to possibly fall on pedestrians below.
Caution signs for people to watch out for falling snow and ice have now been put up around the Apple Store, with certain areas roped off to keep people safe.
Apple Store Community Areas Closed Off
The new Apple Store in Chicago is certainly not the only structure in the city with winter problems. However, the major problem here, as noted by Spudart's Matt Maldre, is the irony that Apple wants the Apple Store to be a community area, but those areas have now been closed because of the design flaw of the roof. People might not want to hang around in the spaces much during the height of the cold winter, but it is not normal to see such big spaces roped off.
The Bigger Problem For Apple
Chicago Tribune's Blair Kamin, meanwhile, pointed out that the icicles forming on the Apple Store's roof is not Apple's worst problem. Kamin wrote that the bigger issue is the difference between Apple's ultratransparent aesthetic and its nontransparent actions.
Kamin referred to the recent controversy surrounding Apple as an example. Earlier this month, Redditors discovered that Apple throttled older iPhones to make their batteries last longer. Apple later confirmed it, but it said that it was only trying to provide the best possible experience to its customers, not because Apple wanted to force iPhone upgrades.
Apple eventually apologized and offered to remedy the situation by offering iPhone battery replacements for only $29, from the previous rate of $79.
According to Kamin, because of the difference in transparency between its buildings and its decisions, Apple "looks deceptive and its buildings should be regarded as a sham."
