District residents no longer have to drive to Maryland or Virginia to get their MacBooks fixed of buy the latest generation of iPhone. D.C. finally has its own Apple store.
The store — the ninth in the Washington area but the first within District borders — opened its doors Friday at 5 p.m. for the curious eyes of its Georgetown neighborhood. Blue-shirted Apple workers dotted the crowds eagerly perusing the iPods and iPads on display.
It took almost two years and five designs for Apple to win approval for the store’s facadefrom the Old Georgetown Board. At issue were the plan’s flat, glass front wall and the second story dominated by a large Apple pendant, features typical of Apple stores.
“There was concern that it looked like a seamless white billboard,” said Thomas Luebke, Secretary of the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts, which oversees the Georgetown Historic District.
Board member David Cox said Apple’s first designs were incongruent with the detailed, early-20th century architecture on the rest of the Wisconsin Avenue block.
“The [initial] proposal was extremely contemporary, with no detail, and very flat surfaces,” board member David Cox said.
Community members chafed at the slow approval process. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s Office of Economic Development called the board to encourage them to work with Apple, Cox said.
Apple won the board’s approval in March 2009 after breaking up the glass storefront into separate panels and including a recessed entrance.
The store will help prop up Georgetown’s lagging retail district, which lost 15 businesses in 2009.
“I think [the Apple store] is a huge shot in the arm,” said Jim Bracco, executive director of the Georgetown Business Improvement District. “It’s a big deal, and we’re pretty excited about it.”
The Apple store is one of 10 new retail businesses opening in Georgetown this year.
