Entertainment

Meet The Genius Behind Apple's Beautiful Retail Stores

Jay Yarow

2010-03-24T18:02:00Z

Peter Bohlin is the genius architect behind Apple's most famous stores around the world.

His work includes the cube store on 59th street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, as well as the new all glass store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

He also designed a new Apple Store which will be in Philadelphia in July, prompting the Philadelphia Inquirer to write a wonderful profile of Peter.

Here's a handful of details from the profile:

The Apple cube store on 5th avenue in New York is the 5th most photographed building in New York, according to Cornell scientists that analyzed 35 million Flickr images.
He designed Seattle's City Hall and Bill Gates gaint home, which the Inquirer calls a "palatial family compound."
He's winning a gold medal from the American Institute of Architects, beating out the man who designed Dubai's giant skycraper. The award is thanks to the Cube building.
He runs Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, which is mostly know for less modern, more rustic homes.
"He's a total computer illiterate," according to his business partner.
He met Steve Jobs when he was building a new headquarters for Pixar.
Peter never designed a retail store before working for Apple, but Steve didn't care. He wanted a Frank Gehry-esque building that would draw people into the stores.
Steve wanted the Apple store that would become the Cube to feel like a clubhouse where people could hang out.
The space had been a failure for retail historically, because it's underground. The glass cube drew people to the store and in the words of Peter, it made a "ceremony of descent."