The 40 feet high cylindrical staircase to the store contains the largest curved glass panels in the world, which are said to be ultra-clear, tempered, scratch-, stain- and bubble-free. Twelve rounded glass panels forming the cylindrical dome are six layers thick, 12.56 meters tall and 2.58 meters wide.
Beijing-based fabricator North Glass Safety Glass Co. undertook the Shanghai project, having worked on similar Apple store projects in New York and Beijing. North Glass took an year to install 62 pieces of glass that included testing new machinery. Special cranes lifted the glass panels in place.
A DuPont Co. division supplied glass-strengthening materials for the Apple project. Some glass came from Shandong Jin Jing Technology Co., which is also producing blast-resistant windows for One World Trade Center, New York’s newest and tallest skyscraper.
Shanghai store also features Apple’s distinctive bitten-apple logo suspended above the glass stairway that corkscrews into the underground retail space. The atrium glass foyer is completely made in China.
Glassmaking is a rare ancient craft with limited history in China. It got a boost in 1954 when Mao Zedong urged more production of building materials during a visit to a Hebei Province glass factory. In 1971, China’s building materials bureau proclaimed its development of a version of the established ‘float glass’ manufacturing process.
