Apple’s townsquare-style store at Scottsdale Fashion Square in Arizona nabbed the best of design award for retail and mixed-use space from The Architect’s Newspaper.
The Scottsdale Apple store beat out a Christian Dior store in Chicago’s high fashion shopping district and a retail center in Springfield, Missouri. Boasting design features like a cantilevered roof for shading, the store looks unlike most other Apple stores you usually see.
Check out the view from the inside:
GT Advanced Technologies, the company that was supposed to make sapphire screens for the iPhone early this decade, has been charged with misleading investors by the SEC.
The SEC’s investigation found that GT and its CEO violated antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws as part of its deal to supply Apple with sapphire. After failing to meet certain performance requirements, GT caused “significant investor harm” by reclassifying over $300 million in debt to Apple. Sadly, the company’s punishment is pretty much just a slap on the wrist.
Apple says it has no plans to manufacture high-tech servers in the USA, despite a recent report claiming the iPhone-maker applied for permission to do “high-tech manufacturing” at its site in Mesa, Arizona.
The Mesa center was previously the home of Apple’s ex-sapphire supplier that went bankrupt in 2014. Instead of seeking permission to manufacture on the site, Apple clarified that it is actually just applying to renew the original Foreign Trade-Zone status of the location that brings some big tax benefits.
A fire of unknown origin broke out today in Apple’s command center in Mesa, Arizona.
Local firefighters responded at around 11:30 Tuesday morning to the structure, which formerly held sapphire glass supplier GT Advanced Technologies.
A Mesa fire spokesperson said the flames seemed to be localized to the roof of the building, near Signal Butte Road and Elliot Road.
Thanks primarily to the memories of its botched sapphire production efforts, Apple’s not had the best of luck so far with Mesa, Arizona — although politicians in the state are desperate to keep it there.
Under a new Senate Bill put forward this week, Apple could receive between one and two decades’ worth of tax breaks for its planned Mesa data center. The tax breaks, introduced by State senator Jeff Dial, would relate to Apple primarily because of its plans to power the facility with 100 percent renewable energy.
The fate of GT Advanced Technologies’ failed sapphire plant in Mesa, Arizona, has been decided. After committing to repurposing the 1.3-million-square-foot facility, Apple revealed today that it will invest $2 billion in making it a global command center for all of its cloud networks.
The company plans to have 150 full-time employees based in Mesa to operate the center once it’s built, and there will be an accompanying solar farm to power the facility with 100% renewable energy.
Apple plans to repurpose its factory in Mesa, Arizona, following the spectacular implosion of its relationship with sapphire manufacturer GT Advanced Technologies.
A report from Bloomberg cites Mesa City Manager Christopher Brady as the source of the information. Apple, for its part, has said that it wants to focus “on preserving jobs in Arizona” and will continue to “work with state and local officials as we consider our next steps.”
GT Advanced Technologies is apparently getting out of the sapphire production game, after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the start of this week.
As reported by Re/code and the Wall Street Journal, the beleaguered company is asking the court’s permission to “wind down” operations at its sapphire manufacturing plant in Arizona — and, yes, for those keep track, that does come less than one year after the company first announced its game-changing deal with Apple.
Apple confirmed to CNBC late on Monday that it has asked Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto the controversial religious freedom bill SB1062.
Apple is the latest company to urge Brewers to veto the bill, which critics have suggested will allow companies to use religious belief as a basis for discriminating against the gay and lesbian community.
Apple could open a sapphire glass manufacturing facility in Arizona as early as February, according to recently published correspondence between the company and state regulators.
Analyst Matt Margolis unearthed documents that mention the Mesa plant — described as “Project Cascade” — and note that it would be used to manufacturer “a critical new sub-component” for a future Apple product.
