Architect S. Charles Lee’s ornate and lasting imprint upon what would eventually age into as the historic core of Downtown Los Angeles is often overlooked from the contemporary postcard perspective of the city. Yet, amongst local Angelenos, natives and adopted transplants alike, the corridors constituting L.A.’s most historically significant remnants of its architectural past  ? including the Broadway Theater District ? are beloved for the “if you know, you know” hidden beauty hidden behind the closed doors of their dilapidated facades. And now, thanks to Apple and their partnership with collaborators Fosters + Partners, a grande dame of the Renaissance Revival style reemerges as a flagship retail destination where technology is framed by the beauty of that gilded age as the Apple Tower Theatre.
Apple’s director of retail design Doo Ho Lee and senior executive partner at Foster + Partners, Stefan Behling spoke to us about the great efforts made not only to modernize the deteriorating Tower Theatre’s interior and exterior for Apple’s own requirements as a retail and interactive events space, but more so about the extent their combined efforts dedicated to preserving and revitalizing the enormous wealth of historic detailing that remained within the 1927-era theater.

“You have to approach the restoration as you would approach the restoration of an old master painting,” says Behling, “Carefully peeling back the bri...