19 photos of Apple's new Vancouver flagship store at Pacific Centre

Apple Pacific Centre Store: the new Apple Vancouver flagship store. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The longtime Apple Store inside CF Pacific Centre mall in downtown Vancouver is now closed, after its continuous operations at the retail unit since it first opened in 2008.

Just footsteps away within the mall complex, a newly built, two-storey pavilion building is now home to the new Apple Pacific Centre Store — a significant flagship location — and it was unveiled to media Thursday morning in a preview event, ahead of Friday’s start of the grand opening weekend festivities.

The pavilion building is strategically oriented at a 45-degree angle from the Vancouver Art Gallery — kitty-corner at the intersection of West Georgia and Howe streets. A terraced plaza in front of the store’s main entrance from the street establishes a further sense of place for the building by further elevating it above the intersection and creates a seating area for gathering and lounging.

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The temporary colourful mural wrap covering the expansive glass facade for more than a week was removed overnight, allowing natural light to pour into the expansive two-storey destination store. Each glass panel is seamless, measuring 32 ft tall and nine ft wide.

apple pacific centre store vancouver flagship

Apple Pacific Centre Store: the new Apple Vancouver flagship store. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The corners of both the roof and glass panels are curved — just like the design of Apple products. A lush green wall provides both an aesthetic and functional backdrop to the building, with 144 plants and native species serving to promote bee and insect habitats, and naturally absorb both heat and sound.

Customers will find all Apple products — iPhone, Mac, iPad, iMac, Watch, and a range of accessories — and the vast majority of the display areas within the main level.

Apple Pacific Centre Store: the new Apple Vancouver flagship store. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

But the second level, a mezzanine, is truly the store’s jewel — a unique, welcoming space for community gatherings and education events.

The high-ceiling mezzanine floor has both table and informal seating, with a large video screen wall doubling as a way to activate space during normal store operations and a useful feature for events.

The mezzanine’s edge steps down to a seating bank area, overlooking the store’s main level below, the entrance plaza, and the intersection, as well as offering direct sight lines of the historic courthouse building that contains the Vancouver Art Gallery. This seating bank is intended to be an informal area for the public to hang out — and it is even outfitted with charging stations for this purpose.

Apple Pacific Centre Store: the new Apple Vancouver flagship store. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The main level and second/mezzanine level are accessible by an architecturally striking staircase — a 45-ft-tall staircase framed by commanding walls and topped with an almost seamless skylight. During the nighttime, this staircase atrium is illuminated from both below and above.

The new flagship store is roughly twice the size of the previous store space, within a pavilion building that has a total floor area of about 14,000 sq ft. As part of the pavilion building project, Cadillac Fairview built a new replacement entrance into the indoor mall, located mid-block just to the east of the store. The new mall entrance opened last summer.

In addition to the main entrance into the new Apple Store from the street, there is also a secondary entrance from inside the mall.

Apple Pacific Centre Store: the new Apple Vancouver flagship store. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

There are currently five Apple Stores within Metro Vancouver, and they employ about 700 people in retail positions combined. The new and expanded replacement store for CF Pacific Centre employs 240 people.

Apple Pacific Centre will officially open tomorrow, Friday, November 18, 2022, at 10 am, kicking off grand opening weekend programming through Sunday. This includes guided meditation, performances, and art and photo labs.

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Construction on the pavilion building for Apple first began in Spring 2020, replacing the mall’s rotunda entrance structure.

Apple Pacific Centre Store: the new Apple Vancouver flagship store. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

After about 14 years, the original @Apple Store at CF Pacific Centre mall in downtown Vancouver has closed.

Just ahead of Friday’s grand opening of the new flagship 2-storey store at the mall. #AppleStore pic.twitter.com/KIa4yOYPpc

— Kenneth Chan (@iamkennethchan) November 17, 2022

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