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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.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
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.
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.