Apple may be the Great American Company — the heir to the spirit of Henry Ford who revolutionized corporations worldwide by modernizing the assembly line to facilitate production of his legendary Model T car. Similarly, Apple under Steve Jobs’ leadership expresses everything that Americans naturally do well — innovation, high quality, smart growth, and nimbleness.
The recession and credit crisis are not slowing Apple, Inc.’s growth as the firm announced plans to open 25 new stores worldwide this year. Two of the new stores are in the Chicago area – one a 15,000 SF boutique in the city’s Clybourn Corridor and another in 42,000 SF in west suburban Naperville.
Apple’s balance sheet is firmly in the black, and the firm employs 35,000 individuals globally. After 30 years, the firm’s brand personality is still groundbreaking, sleek and cool. Think how the iPod changed the music business and the iPhone has redefined the P.D.A.
Apple’s culture of collaboration is legendary (the ipod, for example, was created by 4 people under the aegis of Steve Jobs) with a belief in also fostering individuality that draws very talented people. To recognize its top employees, Apple created the Apple Fellows program for those who have made extraordinary technical or leadership contributions to personal computing while at the company. The Apple Fellows include Bill Atkinson an and Steve Capps (two of the creators of the Mac), Guy Kawasaki (marketing guru and legendary blogger) Al Alcorn (one of the brains behind Atari), and Don Norman (cognitive scientist and usability expert). All that talent has translated to a product that is still peerless in its reputation. According to surveys by J. D. Power. Apple has the highest brand and repurchase loyalty of any computer manufacturer worldwide.
It is ironic that Apple’s rejuvenation comes during a time when the automakers – the symbol of the primacy of the American corporate model – have seen their fortunes tumble because of antiquated systems, an ossified culture and diluted brands. As they emerge from Chapter 11, there are few better companies to study than Apple – a firm that Henry Ford would have been proud of.
The opening of the new Modern Wing of the 
horizontal, a symmetrical glass and limestone box that sinks into the earth, Calatrava’s is an expressionist sculpture that ascends and twists into the lakefront air. The signature Calatrava move (similar to his El Alamillo Bridge in Seville) is the pair of beautifully articulated wings that frame the new building, called the Burke Brise Soleil. With a wingspan rivaling a Boeing 747 and weighing 90 tons, they open and close with the museum (and also with the ebb and flow of the wind load). But Calatrava’s greatness is that his wings aren’t merely wings — they are part of a vocabulary of organic shapes that converse with Lake Michigan, echoing waves and stingrays and even skeletal shapes. “The project responds to the culture of the lake: sailboats, the weather, culture, the sense of motion and change,” he said.
For all the splendor of the wings, the arrival on the inside may be the architect’s greatest reach — the Cathedral-like entry, the Windhover Hall, that recalls everything from Gothic to Antoni Gaudi’s unfinished Sagrada Familia in Barcelona — complete with flying buttresses, vaulted ceilings and a nave shaped like a prow that extends into Lake Michigan. Like Piano, Calatrava is reaching back to the scared origins of art and expression to create a building that cloaks its exhibits in silence and suggestions of ancient ritual.