The flow of acolytes to the new Apple temple on Fourth Street is unabated, but most of them don’t pause to contemplate the dimensions of the sidewalk panels outside the store.
If part of your Apple love is the company’s attention to every detail in design, that’s a mistake. As ifoAppleStore.com recently explained, the new Berkeley store illustrates that obsession. The generating module for the design is the 76 centimeter square stone floor tiles in the store. The glass panels are a multiple of that grid. Outside, two different size sidewalk panels align at key points with the glass panels and the interior store grid.
Everything is symmetrical and modular, tingling visitors’ subconscious. As a commenter on ifoAppleStore pointed out, the only non-symmetrical element is the Apple logo itself, which gives it added prominence.
The illustration below, from ifoAppleStore.com, gives a full explanation of the symmetries in the design:
Incidentally, if you think stories about Apple’s attention to detail are overblown, read this account of Steve Jobs’ urgent call to then-head of mobile applications Vic Gundotra.
