The Design Dozen

THE APPLE STORE: After only one month in business, Apple's newest retail palace, on Fifth Avenue in the heart of Manhattan, is creating a big buzz. Rising like the Louvre's pyramid, from a once desolate plaza in front of the General Motors building, the glittering cube of glass is open 24/7, a beacon for night owls in the city that never sleeps. During the day, sunlight streams down the curving staircase to the retail space below, as pristinely minimalist as the iPod. "All of the stores we've done have featured some unique glass-and-stainless-steel assembly," says Carl Backus of the architecture firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, which designs Apple's outlets. "The opportunity to create an architectural feature out of glass at this scale was a welcome challenge." And he means scale--the cube measures 32 feet in each direction. In other words, a very big Apple.

N'Gai Croal

Lounge Act

THE EAMES CHAIR TURNS 50: Few modern classics are as cozy as this 1956 chair and ottoman, with its rosewood frame and cushy leather. Still in production at Herman Miller, the chair is being celebrated with a show at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York. And if you're bummed about your own 50th birthday, you could visit a shrink--who might well be slouched in his own Eames chair, a professional favorite.

Cathleen McGuigan

City Lights