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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.
The building design was pretty clearly intended to resemble a MacBook lid, and there's around a 0% chance that it was a coincidence.
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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.
ancient buildings
Do you have a source for this or are you just spitballing? On occasion they have the close the brand new shiny PATH entrance below the brand new shiny Freedom Tower in NYC for falling ice, so I'm skeptical of your claim.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
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.
Ice dams are for snow. Gutters are for water. It would be very odd if Chicago did t require roof drainage, so I would assume there is a concealed gutter in the overhang. It just doesn’t do anything for the snow build-up.
Apple retail stores are badly designed as functional buildings. Why should this one be any different! Let’s hope they also found a way to make the winter winds worse as well!
Why isn't this a valid point?
Because it's not really true.
Many high-rise buildings in Chicago put up warning signs, typically in warmer weather when snow is more likely to melt, refreeze, and fall. For older buildings this is usually because of snow on window ledges and for newer buildings it is usually when snow sticks to the vertical surfaces like windows.
Only rarely are sidewalks roped off, especially for single-story buildings like the Apple store - I haven't seen any roped off yet this season. Newer buildings have ways of containing/melting snow before it falls from sloping surfaces, like snow melt systems.
The article keeps stalking bout gutters like they would help. They would actually make it worse for snow & ice, unless it included snow melting. What you often see on sloping roofs are protrusions that help hold the snow pack and break it up when it eventually melts and flows down. But that wouldn't be slick enough for Apple.