Apple’s been pretty consistent with their store designs—hewing to the everything-looks-like-an-iPod school of interior design—but not everyone’s happy about it. Specifically, the kind souls in the Georgetown area.
In case you’re less familiar with our nation’s capital, Georgetown is the rigidly quaint high-rent district with lots that look more like J. Crew than Popular Science. So when the Jobs Army came a-knocking back in September ‘07, Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission turned them down flat. But give them credit for persistence: in the intervening 18 months, they’ve submitted three more designs, each of which has been subsequently turned down.
We’re not entirely surprised. Apple’s sleekness and Georgetown’s nostalgia are pretty tough to blend, but the surprising thing is how well the sketches end up bringing them together. Apple still has one of the best design teams in the country, so if anyone can do it they can.