Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Muth trial is getting more and more bizarre.
• Workers’ rights protest at Apple Store.

Georgetown is subject to its share of popular but wrong myths. None is more prevalent–or wrong–as the myth that resident opposition to a Metro stop is why there’s no station here. It persists as a myth because it comports with what a lot of people think about Georgetowners (and in turn reinforces those opinions).

Well, GM has noticed another myth is starting to take hold: that the oppressive design review of the Old Georgetown Board is why it took the Apple Store two years to open in Georgetown.

Like many myths, there is a kernel of truth at the heart of it. Namely, it is true that it took Apple a long time to get design approval for the new building. But first of all, it didn’t take two years, it took 19 months. The first design was submitted for review in September 2007 and the final design was approved in March 2009. But, yes, a year and a half is rather a long time to get design approval.

But whose fault was the delay?

This is the design Apple first submitted:

Look familiar? It should, it’s almost exactly the same as the final design. But the Old Georgetown Board rejected this first design, expressing concern over the wall of unbroken windows that would be presented to the street. The focus was on scale, not necessarily style. The board simply thought a wall of glass with no articulation (i.e., window frames, transoms, etc.) was too inconsistent with the buildings around it. They even encouraged Apple to submit a modern design, just one that addressed this concern.

It wasn’t a flat out no, it was simply a request to make some tweaks to the design. Maybe you disagree with that request, but so long as you want any sort of design review of construction in a historic neighborhood, you’ve got to accept that you might not always agree with the design reviewers. (And if you think Georgetown would be better off with no design review, check out this monstrosity in Glover Park and ask whether you’d like to see that in Georgetown).

Besides, this request didn’t need to add materially to the length of the review process. Apple could have come back next month with some options to appease the OGB. But they didn’t.

They waited.

And waited.

It wasn’t until nine months later that Apple came back with new designs. And rather than make a few tweaks, they came back with an ice cube:

Now, you may think that this would look great in Georgetown. But you’re being completely unreasonable if you think a design this radical should have been quickly approved. In GM’s opinion, something like this could possible work on a side street or down by the waterfront, but not here.

But more importantly, this design failed utterly to address the OGB’s concerns over the scale and unvariegated nature of the glass wall.

So what did Apple do next?

It waited.

And waited.

It wasn’t until December of 2008 that Apple returned with a new design:

GM can see the appeal of the ice cube, but this is just tacky. Again, Apple seemed to not actually be listening to the OGB. The design continued to include an unbroken wall of windows, but now it had a monolithic stone wall with a giant ad for Apple stamped in the middle of it.

Finally, though, Apple started to get the message; so they promptly came back in January 2008 with yet another revised design:

The thing is, though, that this design was much like the very first one, but didn’t address the OGB’s concerns over a wall of windows lacking any articulation. The OGB once again rejected the design, telling Apple the same thing it did 16 months earlier: add some damn frames to the glass wall.

And three months later they returned with the final design that was approved.

Photo by Bennet Joan Darder.

The final design is basically the first design with the tweaks that the OGB originally requested before Apple went off the deep end. The OGB was consistent throughout the process, and at any point along the way Apple could have simply listened to the comments and addressed them like they ultimately did. The delay was almost entirely of Apple’s own making.

Does this process result in exciting or even particularly interesting architecture? Absolutely not. The Apple store is a bland pastiche of vaguely historical elements which, at best, just blends into the background.

But the myth of the Apple store does not stand for the proposition that the process results in bland architecture (which it mostly does). What it does stand for is the assertion that it’s too difficult to do business in Georgetown because of the historical preservation laws as enforced by the OGB. It’s only too difficult when, like Apple, you’re the one being too difficult.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Tony Hawk stopped by the Apple store yesterday.
• P St. Pictures kicked out so 7-11 can get a little bigger.

This week for Not So Long Ago, in honor of the new iPhone 5 that probably will be announced this week, GM stops by the Apple store.

Nowadays this stretch of Wisconsin Ave. hosts Ann Taylor Loft, the Apple store, and Nine West. GM can’t make out what was in the Ann Taylor Loft. It appears that there was a store called “Black and White” on the upper floors.

As for the actual Apple store address itself, there stood a building that Apple knocked down to build its store. GM believes that building was built in the 1980s and replaced a parking lot. In 1993, it hosted a diner called Boogies. One commentator described it thusly:

In the early 1990s, there was a branch of Boogies Diner in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC. They tried to sell trendy clothes in a diner atmosphere.

The clothes smelled like grease, and the restaurant area smelled like leather. Suffice to say, the concept did not work.

It lasted less than a year. Enough said.

According to this article, it opened in 1990, so the 1993 photo testifies to at least three years of greasy leather and leathery food. Sometime after 1993, the French Connection UK moved into this space (and occupied it until Apple bought the property). GM’s not sure if anything was in here between Boogies and FCUK, but if there was it probably wasn’t for long.

Finally, on the right in the space where Nine West currently is there was nothing.

Here are the photos:

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown Apple Store in Peep form.
• Mmmmm, melted cheese. Speaking of grilled cheeses, GM just had one at Wingo’s the other day. It was fantastic, highly recommended.
• Another  Book Hill storefront gets filled up.

The Apple Store started selling Georgetown Cupcakes. Or at least that appeared to be the case on Friday, but it turns out the crazy long line was for the new iPad part duex and not cupcakes. According to reports, at some point the line stretched around the corner on M St. all the way down to Thomas Jefferson. Bananas.

Well, GM’s not sure, but probably at least some of those people went home empty handed since the store sold out of the new tablet by the end of the day on Friday. By Saturday morning when GM stopped by the store, there was no line and sparse crowds because they still had no iPads. GM overheard one employee mention that the Tyson’s store may still have some, but it had the air of a desperate prospector talking about rumors of a few gold flakes in a river two valleys over.

According to the Post, on Friday there were 300 people in line before the store opened. At 5 AM(!). Austin Wood, a UMD student, was first in line and waited 17 hours for the benefit of being able to say that he wasted 17 hours of his life to own an electronics product slightly before some other people.

And more importantly, DC probably raked in some nice sales tax numbers on those electronics products. So it’s a win-win.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown restaurant scores 2 out of 5 and is described as being like a frat house. While that describes a lot of them, in this case, it’s just Mr. Smith’s.
• Did the Apple Store increase crime?

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Robbers targeting Apple Store customers.
• Crime like that’s pretty stress inducing. Why don’t you try out some yoga?

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Planner comes to the defense of the protracted Apple Store design review.
• Interview with Eastbanc’s Anthony Lanier.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Post tries to gin up a little cupcake rivalry, but mostly fails.
• No Apple sinkhole, despite the sidewalk obstructions. (Although it would be just Apple’s luck recently if the store did disappear down a sinkhole.)