Palo Alto getting extra-fancy Apple store

Swirling rumors have been met with a nearly unprecedented confirmation: Palo Alto is getting a glitzy, vaulted glass-roof design for its new Apple store, much like the one on Manhattan’s tony Upper West Side.

First, an Apple spokesperson told the Palo Alto Daily News that the company is “planning a beautiful new store just steps away” from their current University Avenue digs. Then, ifoAppleStore.com reported that building plans for the site indicate a variation of the signature vaulted glass design.

The new store, at 340 University, is just down the block and about twice the size of the current Apple store. Steve Jobs himself had been known to roam the aisles of the University Avenue location. No word though if Jobs ever patronized Z Gallerie, the quirky furniture store that previously occupied the new space.

The $3.1 million centerpiece store could be open by Fall 2012.