AT&T’s Largest Retail Store in North America
AT&T’s largest retail store in the country at 24,000-square feet, and one that will serve as the company’s West Coast flagship location opened September 28 with the help of MaxMedia, NanoLumens and others. This new tech-centered store lives inside one of San Francisco’s oldest, and most historic buildings and those involved have done a fantastic job of transforming its celebrated past into a futuristic wonder, and at the same time redefining how customers shop for and learn about wireless technology in an increasingly interconnected world. The new store, at 1 Powell Street in Downtown San Francisco is next to the popular trolley cable car turnaround area.
This historic San Francisco building, constructed in 1908, has been meticulously restored from floor to ceiling by AT&T’s construction team, bringing 1 Powell back to its original Baroque architectural splendor, while adorning its vast open space with an array of next-gen tech accessories. Restoration specialists even used feathers and cotton swabs to gently remove decades’ worth of dirt and grime in the majestic coffered ceilings, inch by inch.
Fred Devereux, Regional President – West, AT&T Mobility told us “Our 1 Powell Store is a premier retail environment respecting the beauty and history of the location while bringing the most exciting new entertainment and mobility services to life. It’s as much of an innovative educational space as it is a retail space where customers can interact with the latest technology and learn how it may integrate and simplify their everyday lives.”
The store’s 6,000-square-foot second floor space features a one-of-a-kind interactive, forward-thinking tech playground featuring connectivity through the Internet of Things (IoT) focusing on products such as Entertainment, the Smart Home and Connected Car. It is a physical manifestation of AT&T’s vision to be the premier integrated entertainment provider.
Customers will be welcomed at the top of the escalator by a custom hologram that speaks to AT&T’s innovation and evolution. Throughout, customers will have the ability to interact with each experience through touchscreen technology on 98″ monitors and connected products such as a smart refrigerator to showcase how simple a connected life can be.
AT&T wants to change the face of retail, and the company has evolved its stores to meet customers’ growing needs. This new 1 Powell store is a major part of AT&T’s strategy, positioning itself as an industry leader by simplifying and improving its customers’ world through connectivity.
Some of the first floor store design and merchandising elements were first seen in AT&T’s award-winning flagship brand store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, which opened in August 2012, as well as in the Boston store on Boylston Street, which opened in March 2015. The 1 Powell Flagship Store expands on this tradition of offering a tech-centric retail store that simplifies customers’ lives through seamless integration.
The new 1 Powell Flagship Store – nestled in the original Bank of Italy headquarters, which became Bank of America in 1930 – gives a modern twist to a historic Baroque-inspired building. Upon entering, visitors are greeted by an eight-foot marble globe that has the word ‘hello’ written in 32 different languages, paying homage to the Bay Area’s multicultural history while welcoming international visitors. And when they look up, they’ll see a one-of-a-kind 48 ft x 5 ft NanoLumens digital display overlooking the second level balcony. This electronic canvas features custom fluid art created specifically for this store by the MaxMedia retail experience team created with the assistance of artist Joshua Davis and Man Music Music, the music designers associated with the project.
Joshua Davis said “San Francisco has always been known for its vibrant art community, and now, it’s become home to some of the leading tech companies in the world. So my art celebrates the two facets of San Francisco – the artsy, creative side and the cerebral, techy side. They blend nicely to form today’s San Francisco, and this 1 Powell store definitely captures that vibrant and exciting – uniquely San Francisco – vibe.”
It’s interesting to note that Joshua Davis has developed a technology that enables him to develop a series of assets, which he then codes to behave either on a specific cadence or in response to music. As the in-store digital agency of record, Laura Davis-Taylor (who you can hear speak at The DailyDOOH Investor Conference in New York on Wednesday October 26, 2016) and others on the MaxMedia team reached out to Joshua to leverage his skills, and create something very special with this NanoLumens screen.
There are essentially three ‘chapters’ of content here – all aimed at supporting AT&T’s new brand: (1) Entertainment (2) San Francisco Arts & Culture and (3) Connected Life. MaxMedia’s creative team traveled to New York on several occasions to work with Joshua Davis, and personally designed the repertoire of assets used for each of the three aforementioned chapters. Under MaxMedia’s direction, the two camps worked together to bring MaxMedia’s vision to life. The MaxMedia team then worked with Man Made Music to make it all cohesive.
The new location is part of AT&T’s continuing investment in its networks, retail footprint and workforce in the Bay Area and throughout the state. AT&T has invested more than $7.25 billion in its wireless and landline networks in California between 2013 and 2015. This investment drives upgrades to reliability, coverage, speed and performance for residents and business customers.
Ken McNeely, President, AT&T California said “We’re proud we’ve been able to beautifully restore 1 Powell. It is a significant piece of San Francisco’s storied history. “We thank Mayor Ed Lee, City and County of San Francisco department heads, and scores of planners, inspectors and city staff, whose partnership throughout this process has been invaluable to us.”
As part of the store opening and AT&T’s commitment to the community, AT&T will kick-off a month-long San Francisco Giving campaign with a $100,000 contribution to GradGuru, an AT&T Aspire Accelerator alumnus and a San Francisco-based startup that helps community college students achieve their goal of transferring to a four-year college or university. AT&T will make additional contributions of $20,000 or more every week through the month of October to five nonprofits helping to drive innovation in education, boost diversity in tech, and make San Francisco a vibrant city. In total, AT&T will give $240,000 to organizations including GradGuru, Taking It To The Streets, Meals on Wheels of San Francisco, and San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program.
More than 108 years after Italian immigrants started a bank to serve working class citizens of San Francisco in a building that would eventually become a National Historic Landmark, 1 Powell is now home to AT&T, which has reinvented itself just as San Francisco has done. One went from telegraph and telephones to wireless, network, and smart devices; and the other from the Gold Rush to finance, tech, and education. In many ways, it’s appropriate AT&T takes stewardship of this historic building.
Hours for the new 1 Powell Flagship store are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m, and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. AT&T has 28 company-owned retail locations and 38 authorized retail locations in the Bay Area.
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