San Francisco's Historic Past Meets Its Future At AT&T's 1 Powell Store

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T's new tech-centered store will live inside one of San Francisco's oldest, and most historic buildings, transforming its celebrated past into a futuristic wonder, and redefining how customers shop for and learn about wireless technology in an increasingly interconnected world. The new store, at 1 Powell Street in Downtown San Francisco next to the popular trolley cable car turnaround area, opens September 28. It is AT&T's largest retail store in the country at 24,000-square feet, and will serve as the company's West Coast flagship location.

This historic San Francisco building, constructed in 1908, has been meticulously restored from floor to ceiling by AT&T's construction team, bringing 1 Powell back to its original Baroque architectural splendor, while adorning its vast open space with an array of next-gen tech accessories. Restoration specialists even used feathers and cotton swabs to gently remove decades' worth of dirt and grime in the majestic coffered ceilings, inch by inch.

"Our 1 Powell Store is a premier retail environment respecting the beauty and history of the location while bringing the most exciting new entertainment and mobility services to life," said Fred Devereux, Regional President – West, AT&T Mobility. "It's as much of an innovative educational space as it is a retail space where customers can interact with the latest technology and learn how it may integrate and simplify their everyday lives."

Futuristic tech playground
The store's 6,000-square-foot second floor space features a one-of-a-kind interactive, forward-thinking tech playground featuring connectivity through the Internet of Things (IoT) focusing on products such as Entertainment, the Smart Home and Connected Car. It is a physical manifestation of AT&T's vision to be the premier integrated entertainment provider.

Customers will be welcomed at the top of the escalator by a custom hologram that speaks to AT&T's innovation and evolution. Throughout, customers will have the ability to interact with each experience through touchscreen technology on 98" monitors and connected products such as a smart refrigerator to showcase how simple a connected life can be.

AT&T wants to change the face of retail, and the company has evolved its stores to meet customers' growing needs. This new 1 Powell store is a major part of AT&T's strategy, positioning itself as an industry leader by simplifying and improving its customers' world through connectivity.

Local and international influences
Some of the first floor store design and merchandising elements were first seen in AT&T's award-winning flagship brand store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, which opened in August 2012, as well as in the Boston store on Boylston Street, which opened in March 2015. The 1 Powell Flagship Store expands on this tradition of offering a tech-centric retail store that simplifies customers' lives through seamless integration.

The new 1 Powell Flagship Store – nestled in the original Bank of Italy headquarters, which became Bank of America in 1930 – gives a modern twist to a historic Baroque-inspired building. Upon entering, visitors are greeted by an eight-foot marble globe that has the word "hello" written in 32 different languages, paying homage to the Bay Area's multicultural history while welcoming international visitors. And when they look up, they'll see a one-of-a-kind 48 ft x 5 ft NanoLumens digital display overlooking the second level balcony. This electronic canvas features custom fluid art created specifically for this store by artist Joshua Davis.

"San Francisco has always been known for its vibrant art community, and now, it's become home to some of the leading tech companies in the world," Davis said. "So my art celebrates the two facets of San Francisco – the artsy, creative side and the cerebral, techy side. They blend nicely to form today's San Francisco, and this 1 Powell store definitely captures that vibrant and exciting – uniquely San Francisco – vibe."

Investing in San Francisco
The new location is part of AT&T's continuing investment in its networks, retail footprint and workforce in the Bay Area and throughout the state. AT&T has invested more than $7.25 billion in its wireless and landline networks in California between 2013 and 2015. This investment drives upgrades to reliability, coverage, speed and performance for residents and business customers.

"We're proud we've been able to beautifully restore 1 Powell. It is a significant piece of San Francisco's storied history," said Ken McNeely, President, AT&T California. "We thank Mayor Ed Lee, City and County of San Francisco department heads, and scores of planners, inspectors and city staff, whose partnership throughout this process has been invaluable to us."

As part of the store opening and AT&T's commitment to the community, AT&T will kick-off a month-long San Francisco Giving campaign with a $100,000 contribution to GradGuru, an AT&T Aspire Accelerator alumnus and a San Francisco-based startup that helps community college students achieve their goal of transferring to a four-year college or university. AT&T will make additional contributions of $20,000 or more every week through the month of October to five nonprofits helping to drive innovation in education, boost diversity in tech, and make San Francisco a vibrant city. In total, AT&T will give $240,000 to organizations including GradGuru, Taking It To The Streets, Meals on Wheels of San Francisco, San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program, and NatureBridge.

"GradGuru is extremely grateful for AT&T's continued support of our organization, and of their support for Edtech and social innovation startups and nonprofits nationwide," said Catalina Ruiz-Healy, CEO of Grad Guru. "The Aspire Accelerator experience helped take us to the next level, and this generous contribution will help GradGuru's mobile platform enable thousands of more students to persist and succeed in community college."

More than 108 years after Italian immigrants started a bank to serve working class citizens of San Francisco in a building that would eventually become a National Historic Landmark, 1 Powell is now home to AT&T, which has reinvented itself just as San Francisco has done. One went from telegraph and telephones to wireless, network, and smart devices; and the other from the Gold Rush to finance, tech, and education. In many ways, it's appropriate AT&T takes stewardship of this historic building.

"So many people from across AT&T's diverse business groups worked with tireless passion and commitment to bring this flagship location to the city," Devereux said. "I am proud of every individual effort and the partnerships developed in order to complete the project. We now begin the fun part of sharing our effort with our community. We invite everyone in the Bay Area to join us and check out 1 Powell, view the stunning restoration, and the beauty of the store to see firsthand what all the excitement is all about."

Store information
Hours for the new 1 Powell Flagship store are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m, and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. AT&T has 28 company-owned retail locations and 38 authorized retail locations in the Bay Area. To find the nearest AT&T store or Device Support Center near you, visit www.att.com/find-a-store or www.att.com/dsc.  Don't forget you can also make an appointment before visiting your local AT&T store - https://www.att.com/storeappointment/.

* AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

** Limited 4G LTE availability in select markets. 4G speeds delivered by LTE, or HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul, where available. Deployment ongoing. LTE is a trademark of ETSI. Learn more at att.com/network.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions of people and businesses around the globe stay connected through leading wireless, high-speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. We're helping people mobilize their worlds with state-of-the-art communications, entertainment services and amazing innovations like connected cars and devices for homes, offices and points in between. Our U.S. wireless network offers customers the nation's strongest LTE signal and the nation's most reliable 4G LTE network. We offer the best global wireless coverage. We're improving how our customers stay entertained and informed with AT&T U-verse^® TV and High Speed Internet services. And businesses worldwide are serving their customers better with AT&T's mobility and highly secure cloud solutions.

Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at http://about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT and @ATT1Powell, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att or http://www.facebook.com/att1powell, and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att.

© 2016 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Reliability and signal strength claims based on nationwide carriers' LTE. Signal strength claim based ONLY on avg. LTE signal strength. LTE not available everywhere. Global coverage claim based on offering voice and data roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier, and offering the most wireless smartphones and tablets that work in the most countries.

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