As astute TUAW readers know, the flagship 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York City is being renovated. The glass cube is being rebuilt, this time out of 15 huge panes of glass instead of the 90 that were in place. While construction is going on, the store is still open 24/7.
One of our readers, Justin Parmer, was in the Big Apple and on hand as construction crews began unloading the huge glass panels. He took several photos of the process, and then shot some video as well (the video has been sped up by Parmer).
Apple and the architects working on designing the Apple Stores have been making great use of large expanses of glass. The cylindrical store in Shanghai, China uses curved glass panels that are thought to be some of the largest manufactured to date, and the new Apple Headquarters campus in Cupertino, California will make good use of the same manufacturing process. A close-up look at the glass being held by the workers shows that it is about two inches thick, and it certainly can't be lightweight.
