This fifth edition of the popular sign design series includes the winners of recent Signs of the Times contests: electric and commercial signs for retail shops, restaurants and bars, residential ...
Ribbons, cubes and electronic billboards fill Times Square.
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What’s old is new, if you look at Times Square’s latest signs and spectaculars. Familiar, international brands have returned, or have been refurbished, in new, spectacular forms. After a two-decade absence, Toshiba has returned, having modernized the former Discover sign space. Chase Bank refurbished and embellished its existing sign. Finally, the New Year’s Eve Time Ball celebrated its centennial with a new, high-tech, multicolored sphere.
One Times Square transformed
One Times Square, one of NYC’s international icons, has again dramatically changed its famous north face. The Discover sign has ended its rooftop reign (1999-2008), and Toshiba has acquired (leased) the sign space and installed its own high-definition, LED videoscreen.
In gaining the top sign position, Toshiba also inherited the two Discover sign cabinets, minus the original LED display. Toshiba’s modernization merged the two cabinets to house the new screen.
Barry Winston, Winston and Co.’s (Teaneck, NJ) project manager who handled the Toshiba spectacular, said the new, 55-ft.-square cabinet configuration houses a Toshiba HD LED, full-color, 12.5mm, virtual- (or 25mm-) pitch display. From the ground, the Toshiba rooftop sign rises 340 ft.
In an impressive sign removal, Landmark Signs (NYC) lowered the previous Discover LED screen from the rooftop to the 17th-floor roof/landing and removed it through the window. To successfully manage this egress, Landmark cut the sign into manageable parts that easily fit through the window. The sign parts were stacked into a mini-dumpster, moved into the freight elevator and brought groundside for disposal. Installation of the Toshiba LED signs reversed the same route.
Chase Bank
Chase Bank solidified its Times Square presence with a two-floor location at Three Times Square (the Reuters Building), at 42nd St. and 7th Ave. Previously, a series of curved sign cabinets, mounted to window bays, circled the building’s rotunda. The ribbed cabinets had enclosed neon, backlit, closed-face channel letters that spelled “Chase” and backlit, closed-face replicas of its corporate, octagonal logo. Directly over the main, ground-floor entrance hung a larger, flush-mounted, backlit, neon version of the corporate ID and bank-logo motif.
To modernize its entrance signage, Chase Times Square commissioned Spectrum Signs (Farmingdale, NY) and Ribbit Designs (Hartsdale, NY) to create and fabricate a new sign package. Tom Morra, director of Spectrum’s NYC sign projects, coordinated the Chase sign project from design to fabrication.
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