[One day after these photos were taken Apple announced this store will hold its grand opening on Feb. 28th!]

The construction site at One Stockton St. in San Francisco has been transformed into a real Apple retail store! Two Apple security guards were on-duty watching both sides of the building. The stainless steel siding has been installed on the upper portion of both the Stockton and Ellis St. sides. The back-lit, white-plastic Apple logos have been installed. The skylight on the roof over the glass staircase is finished. On this day, workers were taking down scaffolding on both sides of the building, although there still is a plywood construction walkway on the Stockton St. side.

Much of the interior finish of the building has been installed, but is covered with protective plywood and other materials. The overhead section signs (Pro, Home, etc.) have already been installed in the ceiling. The floor is covered with plywood, but it's not possible to tell if the stone flooring has already been installed beneath it. There is a wide, wooden (or wood-covered) stairway leading from just inside the Stockton St. entrance to the second floor. The covering on the stairway bannister rails seems to indicate that at least some portions of the the glass stairway have already been installed, but are covered with plywood and bubble wrap.

The lower half of the building's facade is uncovered so far, but will eventually sport the medium-gray limestone that has been used at several other street-level retail stores.

The BART transit entrance adjacent to the store is once again closed, as workers install glass windows on both sides of the shaft leading to the underground subway tunnel. BART riders who take the escalator up from the train will have an excellent view inside the store, and out to the surrounding sidewalk.

These photos were taken in the morning, and provided an excellent example of how the stainless steel reflects light in interesting ways, and how the tone of the siding changes as the sun moves across the sky. At some points the steel is very bright, while at other angles is has a much darker tone.

Workers have been working weekends for several weeks, trying to finish the store on deadline. Ron Johnson was spotted at the store last Sunday.

Today marked the beginning of the scheduled second week of training for the store's employees. Interior work on the store appears to be rather complete. All signs continue to indicate an early March grand opening (In fact, the day after I wrote this, Apple announced a Feb. 28th grand opening!).

Update: While visiting the construction site, I took 4-5 photos from the public sidewalk of the main entrance interior of the building. I could see that much of the interior had been completed, but was covered with protective wood, cardboard, heavy paper and bubblewrap. I was approached by the site superintendent, who asked that I not take photos, and I decided not to publish the photo until after the store was completed. Check the last thumbnail for the photo..