Apple Michigan Avenue celebrates Chicago’s creative roots, bringing together the city’s rich history and vibrant contemporary urban culture, by creating a platform for performance in the heart of the city. Located at the intersection of the Chicago River and North Michigan Avenue’s ‘Magnificent Mile’, Apple Michigan Avenue cascades down from Pioneer Court to the river’s edge, creating new connections between the city and the river.
Pioneer Court is an urban plaza steeped in Chicago history. It is the spot where Point de Sable – the founding father of Chicago – first lived and worked. Apple Michigan Avenue sits atop a wide new public stair, created to lead down from the plaza to the river. The gentle descent of levels creates active spaces where people can connect, create, and experience the city and river together.
The stairway transitions seamlessly between the outside and inside. It passes through the building’s walls – dematerialized to pure glass – and connects to the store’s buzzing center, sheltered by an impossibly thin carbon fiber roof, supported on slender stainless-steel columns. As the interior steps down to the river, it acts as a seating space around the Forum – the hub of Today at Apple and a live source of creativity, education and entertainment.
