Apple opens its 26th store in Los Angeles in historic building

Apple Tower Theatre is a new Apple Store designed by UK studio Foster + Partners inside an abandoned 1920s movie theatre in Downtown Los Angeles.

Foster + Partners worked with the technology company to renovate a true historic building, the first theatre in Los Angeles to be wired for showing motion pictures with sound.

The project included restoring the theatre's corner clock tower and renovating the blade sign that projects from its side. Tower Theatre's terracotta facade was also cleaned and a canopy that extends over Broadway was rebuilt. Inside, a grand entry hall designed in the style of Charles Garnier's Paris Opera House, complete with bronze handrails and marble columns, has been restored to its former splendour.

At the centre of Apple Tower Theatre is the Forum, a large retail space with a display screen hung in the restored arch where the cinema screen would once have been. The movie theatre's original balconies remain in situ, and Apple plans to use the space as an auditorium for daily skills workshops and presentations from local filmmakers and musicians. Original cinema seating on the upper level has been turned into a Genius Bar.

apple converts historic theatre into stunning la flagship

Apple opens its 26th store in Los Angeles in historic building (pictures)