An Apple Grows in Georgetown
by John Paczkowski
Posted on February 5, 2009 at 11:27 AM PT
It’s never easy to find the balance between leading-edge design and history and tradition, especially where historic preservationists are concerned.
Just ask Apple (AAPL), which has been going round and round with Georgetown, in Washington, D.C., over designs for the store it hopes to open in the historic neighborhood. Seems the Old Georgetown Board and Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission don’t much care for Apple’s aesthetic, which is obviously out of step with the federalist brick of Georgetown’s neighborhood buildings. Since September 2007, the agencies have objected to three separate plans for a retail space at 1229 Wisconsin Avenue, taking issue with everything from their stainless steel, back-lit Apple logos to their generous use of glass. This, despite the substantial economic benefits an Apple Store would bring to the area and the risk that a frustrated Apple would pick up its designs and go home. Ultimately, Georgetown needs this Apple Store more than Apple needs to put it there.
Now, after two years of dickering, Apple may have finally won the preservationists’ approval. On Monday, the company presented its latest drawings (lower right in the image above) to the ANC and word on the street has it that the ANC approved them. Assuming no further interference, Georgetown’s Apple store could open in late 2009.
[Image Credit:The Georgetown Metropolitan]
Comments
The headline got translamutilated on Yahoo! Finance’s AAPL page into, “An Apple Falls in Georgetown.”
Posted by George Slusher at February 5th, 2009 at 12:26 pm