Apple has submitted a revised design for a new San Francisco store that accommodates concerns over a bronze fountain near Union Square.
The fountain created by Ruth Asawa will stay, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. It will be placed amid the steps leading up to a plaza between back of the Apple Store and the side of the Grand Hyatt.
Asawa's 7-foot-tall fountain is the centerpiece of a long, sloped plaza along Stockton Street between the hotel tower and the existing triangular retail building that faces Union Square. The 1973 fountain is studded with playful images of buildings and characters of the era. It was done in collaboration with friends and schoolchildren who formed figures from bread dough that Asawa - who died this month at age 87 - then cast in bronze.There was also concerns about the store creating a huge steel wall on Stockton Street that was over 80 feet long and 20 feet high. Apple has addressed this by adding an 8-foot wide glass window that will be notched into the wall from the ground to the roof. The window continues across the roof to create a skylight for the retail space below.
"My initial reaction is quite positive," said City Planning Department Director John Rahaim.