This story in yesterday's SF Chronicle made me really, really sad;
Steve Jobs made Apple into a top American retailer by designing crisp, modern stores with features reminiscent of the company’s products. Glass boxes and aluminum panels abounded. But as Apple moves to turn its stores into experiences — places for concerts, art exhibitions and photography classes — the tech giant has begun to pursue distinctive yet familiar buildings that its customers might admire as well.
In Washington, Apple has set its sights squarely on the Carnegie Library in Mount Vernon Square. One of thousands of libraries built nationwide with funds donated by steel tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, it opened in 1903 as the first desegregated public building in the city. Apple officials say they plan to restore the building to its original grandeur and outfit Carnegie as a place to hold free concerts, art exhibitions, workshops for teachers and coding classes for children.
Finding historic buildings with stories rooted in their communities are part and parcel to the experience Apple is trying to create, Siegel said. The company has opened stores in a former restaurant bay in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, in a Depression-era brick storefront in Brooklyn, and in a 130-year-old former bank in Paris.
Rather than plastering the buildings with the familiar logo, Apple’s designers say they will focus on restoring the building’s historic character. It can take a little work to find the store’s signs and logo — which is the point.
Gee. Some of us tried to get Apple to just that in B'game. We had a gorgeous, original Bank of Italy — later BoA– building and Apple insisted on tearing it down for a glass and stone box even though they had some of the right instincts elsewhere like South Pasadena where the council probably stuck to its guns more. One might say "better late than never" but in poor Burlingame's case it's not better late than never. Unless the plan is to recreate the Bank of Italy building. Don't bet on it happening behind the wall.
Will we learn anything from this to apply to the old Post Office?
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