Stainless Steel Stair and Elevator, Apple 5th Avenue Store

The Apple Fifth Avenue store was fully renovated, doubling the size of the underground space, increasing the ceiling height, and creating a completely new aesthetic for the interior.

TriPyramid’s collaboration with the design team from the early stages of the project allowed us to accelerate the design/build process for both the staircase and elevator, going from concept sketch to finished product in under two years. To meet the accelerated schedule, production of the structural steel drum frame which supported the entire installation began before the design of the inner and outer cladding systems had been finalized.

Each stair tread and landing features a welded, high-strength stainless-steel frame and polished stainless-steel infill panel. Frame member geometry was optimized via finite element analysis to limit deflection and reduce weight while creating the sweeping forms of the treads. The frames were machined on all surfaces after welding so that our expert finishers at our Long Beach, CA manufacturing facility could bring every surface to a perfect mirror polish.

The exterior “Super Mirror” stainless steel cladding and interior painted aluminum cladding of the drum structure are only ten inches apart from one another. This meant that all the complex subassemblies required to lock the treads and handrail to the structural steel frame were carefully designed to provide maximum adjustability while fitting in a compact eight-inch envelope. Additionally, to provide sufficient adjustability for the handrails, precise pockets were machined into 16-foot long spiral railing sections using a 5-axis mill. Complex fixturing combined with the accuracy of the machine allowed us to hold a positional tolerance of less than 1mm in 3-dimensional space.

TriPyramid manufactured the steel structural frame, landings, treads, handrail, interior, and exterior cladding, elevator platform and all metal components in the elevator cab.

Lastly, the glass cube on the plaza was fully re-built. See its original and second incarnations:

Apple 5th Avenue Entry Cube – 2006

Apple 5th Avenue Entry Cube, Rebuild – 2012