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Apple's MacBook Air-like Store Roof Wasn't Designed To Handle Snow... in Chicago (9to5mac.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report Apple opened its new flagship retail store in Chicago earlier this year to much acclaim, but as the weather turns from fall to winter, a design oversight is causing some problems. As reported by Chicago blog Spundart, Apple seemingly didn't design the MacBook Air-like roof of the store to account for snow... in Chicago. Apple's newest Chicago store garnered earlier attention for its roof design that mimics a MacBook Air, but one clear oversight is that there are no gutters to catch snow or ice. Furthermore, as the multi-level store sits along the Chicago River, the roof is sloped downward, meaning that anyone standing on the walkway along the river gets hit with falling snow and ice. Further reading: Apple is really bad at design.
Obviously you're holding the building wrong.
And denied building permits till the design accounted for water and snow runoff.
Like everything Apple makes, they'll have to tear the whole thing down and start over.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
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If they really completely forgot about snow and ice they have a much more serious problem.
What about the WEIGHT of the snow and ice on the cantilevered roof with just the glass to support it?
I looked at the picture and couldn't tell how far it was extended out from the central supports but if there's a lot of snow on top that then catches rain and sleet to become a heavy thick blanket of ice, I would imagine there could be some structural issues (if it even flexes a little maybe it would cause the glass to shatter).
Any structural engineers who know this kind of construction and can shed some light on this issue?
It looks pretty. Maybe an engineering problem.
But it sounds like the roof works fine, and the complaints are it's inconvenient for people who aren't in the Apple store.....
there are no gutters to catch snow or ice. Furthermore, as the multi-level store sits along the Chicago River, the roof is sloped downward, meaning that anyone standing on the walkway along the river gets hit with falling snow and ice.
Uhm.... like the falling snow and ice that is all over the place, when it is snowing? Maybe look at the roof, and realize that's not a good place to be standing around.
They've done OK using that philosophy.
God is going to violate the Apple warranty...
...that intentionally slows down the snow and ice after one year.
The snow falls of the roof just fine, it's not accumulating to the point of a collapse. So the problem isn't the roof.
The problem is people are pedestrianing all wrong.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
I was unaware that Apple was an architectural firm.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
So is the part that they've roped off public property? Or required to be there as part of their building permits?
Hey everybody, look at all the crybabies whining about Apple. Never mind that it doesn't actually affect anyone here, and the building design probably isn't Apple's fault. Slashdot readers just want something to whine about and get butthurt about, so the crybabies are out in force.
Why do we care that some random building has snow and ice falling off of it? Because Apple-haters gotta get their hate on? Get a life and stop burdening everyone with this crap.
...and one thing that sticks out in memory is in some of their stores, they had opted to build things against code and safety guidelines and just pay the fines as long as it wouldn't shut down the stores.
The company got in trouble regularly because of things like people hurting themselves by walking into glass doors that are hard to see without appropriate markers and whatnot.
They didn't give a fuck.
That's Apple nowadays: all form over function.
Circumcision is child abuse.
I'm going to blame California, not Apple, for this one. I had a relative who worked in the Metropolitan Transit Commission here in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. When putting in light rail, they got a consultant from California, who absolutely insisted that all you needed for bus and train shelters was a roof, no walls. That is not a good idea in a Minnesota winter.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Does anyone really think Apple designed the building? They conferred with architectural design firms with their image in mind. The firm they chose should've accounted for snow; the building permit office and inspectors should never have cleared a building with a sub-standard roof for Chicago weather. I hate Apple as much as the next person, but let's stop stroking our dicks over something that's hardly Apple's fault.
There is a long history of ice falls off of buildings in Chicago. Many just place a sign that says 'watch for falling ice.' How exactly are you supposed to watch for it?!?
More: https://www.citylab.com/environment/2012/02/chicagoans-vs-falling-icicles-history/1219/
It's holding onto the roof wrong.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I'm not laughing at them, I'm laughing with them.
I'm laughing at their customers, though.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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I work in Downtown Chicago.
First, we haven't really had snow yet. And by that, I mean we haven't had a good snowfall over 15" in one go, or our 36" annual snowfall, or our 89.7" record snowfall. I thought this would be a story about the roof handling the weight of snow. I'm guessing professionals that know Chicago had that in mind.
Second, snow accumulates on exterior building walls, melts, freezes to ice, and falls off. Pretty much all of Downtown Chicago in winter is orange cones and signs saying "Danger–Falling Ice".
So this is nothing unusual. Well, except it's Apple. That's the only thing that makes the story interesting at all.
Isn't this something that a building inspector or local government should talk to the architect and builder about? Or are we trying to blame this on Apple and the local store manager?
Its not a bug, its a feature!
All the making fun of apple asside.
It isn't everywhere under the roof edge that is blocked off, but the entire steps on two sides, even 40 feet away from the roof. Sensationalist (or clueless reporter) saying what people want to hear rather than actually reporting the facts.
That isn't to say there couldn't be issues with the roof and not having gutters ect.
It must be a day that ends with "day".
My first thought when Apple announced it was putting a big glass building in Scottsdale, Arizona was "Welp, that idea came from somebody who doesn't live in Scottsdale, Arizona."
Apparently the "architect who is obviously from out of town" problem is not unique to that store.
That's why they are paid well. They should have ensured this issue was addressed in the design somehow.
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Inspired by the famed architect I. M. Pei, itâ(TM)s Appleâ(TM)s latest product - the iMpale.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Falling ice is a common issue in the Chicago loop when weather starts to warm and ice on buildings starts to melt and fall off. Just google "chicago killed falling ice" to get an idea of how often this happens.
Which is why Android accounts for over 90% of all phones now, and continues to steal market share...
Chicago is famous for falling icicles. They've made movies about it. If you can read, the yellow signs should give you a clue.
Some people have never been to the movies and apparently can't read.
Many years ago (1990s) I took a guided trip round Chicago and one of the things was a building with that was square or rectangular section with a sloping roof at such an angle that it was a diamond shape.
Maybe this one? https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...
The guide said the angle was almost perfectly wrong - just flat enough that snow would build up ... until all of a sudden it wouldn't and there'd be an avalanche.
The solution, IIRC, was auxiliary heaters.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
At first glance I thought TFA hinted at a failure of the roof under snow load. That would have been something.
What? Apple doing Form over Function? SHOCKING
So disabling half of the staircase is okay with you?
When the staircase is 40ft wide, why does it matter if only 20 feet of it are open... that sounds like a design win to me (even if inadvertent).
I mean, have you measured the stairways in your own home or building or asylum?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple's newest Chicago store garnered earlier attention for its roof design that mimics a MacBook Air, but one clear oversight is that there are no gutters to catch snow or ice. Furthermore, as the multi-level store sits along the Chicago River, the roof is sloped downward, meaning that anyone standing on the walkway along the river gets hit with falling snow and ice.
Designed by Apple in California ;-)
snow in chicago? FAKE NEWS!
Which is why Android accounts for over 90% of all phones now, and continues to steal market share...
All that is happening is that the poor are gaining greater access to smart phones. This is a good thing but lets not try to manufacture a false political narrative, rather accept reality as it is. Apple only serves the more affluent, Android has models that serve both the affluent and emerging markets. Android is growing where Apple does not compete. Where they do compete Apple has greater brand loyalty. Android is stealing nothing.
The new Apple design meme
Beautiful Slippery Brittle
Exactly what you want in your cell phone
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
...
Fuck off spple hating msmash
Looking at the photo, it sure looks like an oversight on snow and ice given the apparent certainty of sheets of it falling off at some point. Other posters have remarked that for Chicago, cordoning off sections of the sidewalk around certain buildings is no unusual for winter. It's apparently standard practice there to deal with snow and ice.
But what about rain? There are apparently no gutters or diversions for rain, either. We don't get to see the main entrance to understand if the architects had made allowances to walk in and out of the building safely with regard to falling snow or ice, but what about rain? Does the entire roof drain off the edges to form standing sheets of cascading water during even light rainfall? It would be an embarrassing design defect if your customers were nearly guaranteed to be pelted with precipitation during inclement weather both on entry and exit of the structure.
But for those of us not in Chicago, all we have to go on is one photo, and a blog entry. Perhaps someone who is actually there could help clarify the situation.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
I have to say... I haven't yet seen a single Apple design feature that I actually like. Apple aren't "design". They're "designer". That is, they're all mouth, charge big money, for something basic or impractical or just stupid.
Design is about function just as much as it is about aesthetics and I can't find a single Apple feature, gadget, hardware or accessory that... well, functions better than anything else. Sometimes it's even hard to point out something *satisfactory*. Even the boxes things are packaged in drive me mad (who in their right mind makes a trapezoidal box for a large expensive flat item that only tessellates if you turn half of them upside-down?)
And, yes, I manage hundreds of Apple devices as part of my job (not my choice, I made the disclaimer when I took them over that I thought it was a big mistake of theirs, they realised it themselves within a matter of a year and are now backpedalling and moving AWAY from everything Apple).
Honestly, I can't find a single feature on an Apple device -
software or hardware - that I thought "that's pretty cool" when I first saw it. Nothing. Power buttons are un-feelable and yet on the rear of the devices, the stupid keyboards, the horrible mice, the packaging, the cabling, the layout for phone and tablet screens, no batteries, no expansion capability, everything about them just annoys me.
Even their "design" book where they show off Apple design? It's a white cover with a white spine with white writing on it so you can't read what it is when it's sitting on a bookshelf in normal lighting.
They are "designer", not "design", which means you're paying through the nose for shite, rather than have moments of "wow, look at that, isn't that cool how that pulls out, works, joins to this, has been put together, etc. and still works really well".
And 0% of profit.
They should put heater circuit under the "lid" to keep snow/ice away, while still resembling the lid...
I love to pick on Apple as much as the next guy, but this is really an oversight from the civil engineering firm they hired to design it for them. The owner can have as much input as they want, and tell the architect what they'd like, but ultimately, the engineers are supposed to do a feasibility analysis that takes into account foreseeable conditions. They definitely have to design for snow loads for one, and if you have funny shapes, you should be aware that snow will accumulate differently than on a flat surface, and you should be doing some numerical modelling to try to predict this. It's time consuming, and expensive, but that's part of the reason fancy buildings cost more than cookie-cutter ones.
I like my dinosaurs feathery, and my pterosaurs hairy (or is it pycnofibery?)
This is still Slashdot, where we like free software and open platforms.
Does 'The Sharper Image' have a website with a comments section where you might be more welcomed?
Must be useful for something?
... of the Apple philosophy. All about looks and nothing about function / practicality.
Who cares how it functions so long as it looks pretty?
The article is idiotic and written by someone who never lived in a state with snow. Gutters are not for catching snow or ice, they are for rain.
It's so painfully obvious if you look at the massive volume of snow on any roof thatthere is no way adding 8" of gutter or 8" of pipe would do anything to contain it should it decide to slide off in any appreciable quantity. Also, ice grows on the edge of anything including gutters, and it will fall down.
All that is happening is that the poor are gaining greater access to smart phones.
I am certain you know jack about the smartphone market (or tech market in general for that matter)... lots of expensive android phones for sale, so you can drop the "oh iPhone is for deep pockets" bs, and replace it for a more proper argument: iPhone is for the brain dead fools that are referred in the saying "a fool and his money are soon parted"...