DOWNTOWN — Chicago's new Apple store will open next month.
The new flagship store under construction on the Downtown riverfront will open Friday, Oct. 20, Apple executives announced during a sweeping press event Tuesday.
Designed by London-based Foster+Partners, the new 20,000-square-foot store will consist of a glass box stretching from Pioneer Court at 401 N. Michigan Ave. to the north bank of the Chicago River.
Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president of retail for the California-based electronics giant, revealed the new store's opening date during an Apple press event that also will include release dates for new iPhones, Apple Watches and other products.
The new store will open about 18 months after Apple broke ground on the project, which made headlines earlier this year when construction crews temporarily placed an Apple logo on the store's roof. Combine the new store's logo with its curved, metallic roof, and it starts to resemble a MacBook.
Apple is moving its flagship Chicago store from 679 N. Michigan Ave. to the north bank of the Chicago River, a development real estate observers say marks a shift in the Mag Mile's center of retail gravity further south near Millennium Park.
"Our store on North Michigan Avenue has welcomed more than 23 million customers since it opened in 2003, and we're now creating something even more remarkable for Chicago," Nick Leahy, an Apple spokesman, told DNAinfo in 2015.
The new store will open less than a month after Apple releases the iPhone 8, starting at $699, on Sept. 22. Apple's new iPhone X, starting at $999, will hit stores Nov. 3.
Stairs and an elevator will take shoppers down to the riverfront store. [All renderings by Foster + Partners]
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