The 5th Most Photographed Place in New York City

The Apple Store Fifth Avenue is open 24/7

Designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson for Apple Inc., the innovative glass spiral staircase brings shoppers and visitors underground beneath the unmistakeable glass cube to a massive store of Apple computers, iPhones, iPods, and accessories.

"The Plaza" in the background

The Apple Store Fifth Avenue boasts the largest staff (in brightly colored t-shirts) of any Apple Store, with nearly 300 highly trained Mac Specialists, Mac Geniuses and Creatives who offer free tips and tricks on photography, movies and music to make creative projects come to life.

Recently, a research was conducted by a group of computer scientists at Cornell University to analyze geotags on 35 million photos on the photo-sharing webiste, Flickr. The research generated global and city maps. According to their findings, New York City is the most photographed city on Earth. Curiously, the APPLE FLAGSHIP STORE on Fifth Avenue is the fifth-most photographed place in the city. The most photographed sites in New York City are:

1. Empire State Building

2. Times Square

3. Rockefeller Center

4. Grand Central Terminal

5. Apple Store on Fifth Avenue

6. Columbus Circle

7. Liberty Island

The research also generated statistics on the world's most photographed cities and landmarks, gleaned from the analysis of the multi-terabyte photo collection: the top 25 most photographed cities in the Flickr data are (in order): New York City, London, San Francisco, Paris, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Rome, Amsterdam, Boston, Barcelona, San Diego, Berlin, Las Vegas, Florence, Toronto, Milan, Vancouver, Madrid, Venice, Philadelphia, Austin, Dublin and Portland.

Above are some of the images of the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue that I took on several occasions.

APPLE STORE FIFTH AVENUE INTERIOR

Here is a view of the APPLE STORE FIFTH AVENUE’s staircase leading from the street. I took this photo when I attended a workshop at the store. Both the Fifth Avenue and SOHO stores offer free workshops on getting started with the Apple computers, and use of the iPhone, iTunes, iPhoto, etc.

There are 538 sheets of glass in the Apple Store Fifth Avenue structure, supported by hundreds of metal bolts. A custom-made cylindrical elevator occupies the center of the space. The glass cube lets in natural light throughout the store. The massive interior is dominated in the middle by Mac and iPod displays and flanked by registers on one side and forty-five feet of Genius Bar. The store employs 300 “amazingly-well trained people” culled from more than 5000 applicants. The Genius Bar (including the Studio section and the iPod section) employs 96 full-time people. Unlike the SOHO store, there is no theater, the center point for training and educational program.