In an excerpt from an upcoming book, the history behind the iconic cube on 5th Avenue finally gets to see the light of day. Not only is the flagship Apple Store on Fifth Avenue open, quite literally, 24/7 every single day of the year, it’s located beneath the large and eye-catching glass cube that is, believe it or not, one of the more commonly photographed landmarks in all of New York City.

The history begins well before the store opening in 2006. The real estate for the store was purchased by NYC real estate developer Harry B. Macklowe in 2003 when he acquired the gargantuan General Motors Building for a then-record setting $1.4 billion. The GM property housed an unused plaza, “a rather useless open space that extended from the front entrance to Fifth Avenue.”

Macklowe felt that the transformation of the property lay with Apple, which was several years into Steve Jobs’s second stint as CEO and looking to break out into retail sales. He pestered George Blankenship, Apple’s vice-president of real estate, for a meeting with Jobs which occurred in November 2003.

Out in Cupertino, Macklowe and Jobs hit it off immediately. “He’s wearing this black turtleneck, he’s wearing black jeans … it was terrific. The Apple team started talking about a flagship store that would be groundbreaking in almost every aspect,” he said. “It would be open 24/7.” The cube itself, that was reportedly part of Jobs’ vision. The designers and architects involved opted for a 32×32 foot cube.

The entire backstory behind the cube’s development has never been told and is well worth checking out in its entirety. The excerpt was taken from an upcoming book on the full history of the GM Building.