# Apple's SF store: how did they build it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 7, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755 "2025-10-07T20:13:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Timz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Timz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timz)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/1 "2025-10-07T20:13:30Z")
On Post St, north side of Union Square – the south wall of [the store](https://maps.app.goo.gl/5utxd31Xshztob4y7) is sheets of glass (I assume), each sheet being 10 feet wide and 40+ feet tall. Making such a sheet is impressive, transporting it to the site is impressive, but more impressive is whatever they did once a sheet had arrived. How did they get it upright and into place? Must have been a removable frame around each sheet, to be able to withstand the installation process? What would they lift it with – the glass had to be installed before the top of the building existed? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/2 "2025-10-07T20:17:01Z")
> [@Timz](#): > > What would they lift it with – the glass had to be installed before the top of the building existed? What? Why? It’s not like it’s load-bearing. Those are just really big windows, no? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/3 "2025-10-07T20:22:15Z")
They probably just used a big suction-cup manipulator to lift the glass into place, and then glue it into a frame. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/4 "2025-10-07T20:26:06Z")
If you really want to have your mind blown by glasswork (or acrylicwork), look up some public aquariums. I think the largest panel in the Georgia Aquarium tank where they have whale sharks is 60x25 feet. And it holds back massive amounts of water, too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/5 "2025-10-07T22:54:58Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > And it holds back massive amounts of water, too. The mass of water doesn’t actually matter, just the depth. Still impressive, though. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/6 "2025-10-08T06:12:36Z")
Well, they’ve had what, almost forty years now to perfect that transparent aluminum (as seen first in San Francisco)… ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/7 "2025-10-08T06:23:57Z")
> **[Aluminium oxynitride](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride)** > > Aluminium oxynitride (marketed under the name ALON by Surmet Corporation) is a transparent ceramic composed of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen. Aluminium oxynitride is optically transparent (≥80% for 2 mm thickness) in the near-ultraviolet, visible, and mid-wave-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is four times as hard as fused silica glass, 85% as hard as sapphire, and nearly 115% as hard as magnesium aluminate spinel. It can be fabricated into transparent windows, plates, dom Al... ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/8 "2025-10-08T17:40:57Z")
They have panels kind of like these at Apple Park (the Spaceship), too. My spouse works there, and the one time I actually got to go (they normally don’t allow family members on the campus - this was a specific family open house day) he told me they buy the panels from a company in Germany, and they have a bunch of extras on hand in case they have to replace one. It’s really quite fascinating: > **[How the World’s Largest Curved Windows Were Forged for Apple HQ - Architizer...](https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/stories/architectural-details-apple-park-windows/)** > > A look into how the world’s largest window panels were made. I also found it amusing that, when the place first opened, the windows were so clear that employees were literally running into them because they couldn’t see them. They had to add classy little semi-opaque decals at eye level to prevent accidents. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/9 "2025-10-08T23:24:26Z")
How has/will it fared/fare against earthquakes? I’m unfamiliar with the building, so I don’t know when it was built. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apples-sf-store-how-did-they-build-it/1023755/10 "2025-10-09T02:31:04Z")
It’s a recent enough building that fully earthquake aware design would’ve been used. Big glass is plenty flexible if installed in appropriately flexible carriers. IMO w no detailed knowledge, the buildings on both sides will fail before Apple’s glass does. I have family in the local SF Bay Area counter-earthquake civil engineering biz. It isn’t trivial, but it’s fully doable if you bring enough money & have an open enough mind.