This week, Apple opened its newest store in downtown Los Angeles, and this definitely doesn’t look like your typical Apple store. Rather than the single-room, all-glass storefront with the big Apple logo above the doors that we’re used to seeing, this one has set up shop in an old movie theater.
Tower Theatre was built in downtown L.A. in 1927, but it has sat unused since 1988. An ornate movie theater, it was the first one in L.A. to play films with sound. Apple even kept the purple celluloid film strip found on early sound film, integrating it into some of the restored stained glass windows.
Apple’s store in the restored Tower Theater auditorium.
Apple
The actual store part is housed in the old auditorium. The upper balcony has been refitted with rows of benches where customers can wait comfortably for their Genius Bar appointments. The lower level in front of the screen has all the usual trappings you would expect of an Apple store, with rows of tables displaying the company’s latest wares.
