The Slow Death of Neon
“Rainbow Room” faces possible doom. Photo: Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis/Getty Images
From Curbed: The first frames in the trailer for Saturday Night, Jason Reitman’s film about the beginnings of SNL, show the side entrance to 30 Rockefeller Center, its red glowing letters spelling out NBC STUDIOS, as they have since 1935. It reminds us that we’re in Radio City, as the whole Rockefeller Center complex was known in its early decades, headquarters of the Radio Corporation of America. This place is an American monument, the source of RCA’s pioneering broadcast systems, the radio networks that in their early days were called NBC Red and NBC Blue, the ones that knitted together American thought as never before. A little later, in the TV age, these studios beamed out Toscanini and Today and Tonight. The entrance carries not just a literal neon sign but a symbolic one: power, news, late nights, modernity, the future, all beckoning.
And today, Tishman Speyer is applying to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to scrap it, replacing the glowing neon with cheaper, lower-maintenance, lower-energy LEDs.
The interior of New York Bagel Co., designed by Frank Gehry, is under immediate threat
New York Bagel Co. in Los Angeles was designed by Frank Gehry. It is under threat of being lost as the landlord has opted not to renew its lease. (Gil Garcetti)
From The Architect’s Newspaper: One of Frank Gehry’s most unique—and unknown—projects is under immediate threat in Los Angeles. New York Bagel Co., a 1990 eateryinside a Brentwood strip mall called Town & Country, features classic Gehry touches like shifting surfaces of laminated plywood, sheet metal, and concrete. Its signature is a 30-foot-long, galvanized steel model of the Chrysler Building that appears to be crashing through the ceiling. The restaurant’s owners said the landlord, Los Angeles–based Anderson Real Estate, have refused to renew its lease, so they must vacate the premises by the end of the month. They will start moving out on December 16.
The Wanamaker organ has been part of a treasured holiday tradition in Philly for over 100 years − a historian explains its illustrious past and uncertain future
The organ dates back to 1904 and was installed in Wanamaker’s in 1911. Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge via Getty Images
From The Conversation: After Macy’s announced in November 2023 its plans to close approximately 150 locations across the United States, some Philadelphians fretted – not so much about the fate of the Center City department store, but about a local treasure housed inside.
What would happen to the 120-year-old Wanamaker organ and annual Christmas light show?
As a historian of Philadelphia and historic preservation, I recognize the panic as a familiar response to the economic changes that have been shaping the city for 75 years. As city leaders have struggled to develop an economic anchor for downtown, the historical and cultural features of the city have drawn more enthusiastic visitors than the retail businesses meant to profit from them.
Old-School New York Diners Are Having a Stylish Renaissance
Photographed by Steven Klein, Vogue March 2006
From Vogue: Talk about a comeback. The latest hotspot for eating out in New York City has been around for almost a century: the humble diner. For a moment, it seemed as if these time-warp eateries were destined for extinction, with the past decade seeing many of them close their doors—casualties of rising expenses, rent hikes, and changes in customer tastes. Yet a recent wave of newly-refurbished, next-generation diners and luncheonettes have ushered in a vibrant new era and audience. And these days, they’re as sought out by the fashion set as any of the wildly expensive haute eateries or private members clubs of the moment.
Forthcoming Hotrod Hangout in Galena soon will include an operating Valentine diner
From Route 66 News: The Hotrod Hangout Speed Shop & Diner, which will open soon in Galena, Kansas, will include an original Valentine diner operating as soon as this spring.
The speed shop inside will include elements of an old-time Fina gas station and a drive-in theatre, complete with a ticket booth, which the owner hopes will become a travel destination.
The hotrod-parts-and-restaurant business is the brainchild of Brian Haden, who originally hails from Hope, Kansas, but has fostered a love for Route 66 for years. He said he’s traveled the Mother Road several times as far west as Albuquerque.
THE ONGOING ROADSIDE RELICS PROJECT DOCUMENTS THE FADING PRESENCE OF NEON ART ON TEXAS’ HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Photo by Molly Block
From Texas Highways: Whether it was visits to Snapka’s Drive Inn for hamburgers in her hometown of Corpus Christi, or midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Houston’s Alabama Theatre in the early 1980s, some of photographer Molly Block’s fondest memories have one aesthetic marker in common: vintage signs. Specifically, the kind of midcentury relics that used to adorn so many cinemas, burger joints, and motel courts throughout the state.
Today, those vestiges of a bygone era are in danger of extinction as chain businesses and commercial architecture more concerned with practicality elbow out the hand-forged neon that made any Texas road trip in the 1950s and ’60s a panoramic feast for the eyes. For posterity’s sake, Block sought to document that level of craftmanship starting in 2010 with the purchase of her first iPhone.