Stores

New Apple Store Currently Features a 30-Foot Artwork from Musqueam Weaver Debra Sparrow and Designer Mo Bofill

The new Pacific Centre Apple boutique opens November 18.

By Stacey McLachlan /

Apple has obviously tired of the minimalist storefront experience it pioneered, because today’s big retail announcement was all about the oversized artistic masterpiece outside the tech company’s new Pacific Centre shop.

We can only assume the shop will be packed with the usual gleaming gadgets and covers to protect those gleaming gadgets, because the news doesn’t even touch on what people will actually be able to buy or do in the boutique, which opens Friday, November 18. Instead, all the buzz is focused around the facade’s eye-catching mural, which sneakily incorporates 12 nods to Apple products—it’s like a Where’s Waldo? spread, but for AirPods.

The commissioned work is a collaboration between celebrated Canadian designer Mo Bofill and Musqueam weaver and artist Debra Sparrow. Spanning more than 30 feet across, it’s a dramatic (and beautiful) piece to gaze upon until the store opens on the 18th—after which you’ll need to find something else to stare at as you wait anxiously for an Apple Genius to tell you that she won’t be able to resuscitate the iPhone you dropped in the toilet.

The commissioned mural on the facade of the new Apple Store in Pacific Centre is a collaboration between celebrated Canadian designer Mo Bofill and Musqueam weaver and artist Debra Sparrow. (Courtesy Apple)

Positioned across from the Vancouver Art Gallery, it’s appropriate that Apple is leaning hard into a new, artful era. “This new store is a place where creative journeys begin,” explains the press release. To wit, Apple is offering a grand opening weekend designed to get that creative spark, uh, sparking: think live rap performances by Boslen, live dance by Emmy-winning choreographer Chloé Arnold, and Q&A with your boy George Stromboloupoulos.

Aspiring shutterbugs (or whatever we call people who lean hard into Portrait Mode these days) can take a photography tour of Vancouver architecture, while artists can enjoy free workshops and tutorials from Apple Creative Pros.

Register here for opening weekend events, or just wander on down to the corner of West Georgia and Howe to find inspiration from downtown’s newest mural—no Apple ID required.