Photo tour: In search of classic Las Vegas neon
From USA Today: LAS VEGAS – Neon is loud, garish and hard to miss.
But if you look for it on the famed Las Vegas Strip, good luck. The wild colors and pointers to get you in the door for “free drinks” and “floor shows” have all but disappeared from Las Vegas Boulevard, save for the pink marquee of the Flamingo, the casino formed in 1944 by mobster Bugsy Siegel and still thriving today.
You won’t see classic neon at the newer establishments like the Aria, Cosmopolitan, Bellagio, Paris or Venetian.
But have no fear: Neon is still alive and well, if you know where to look.
Hard Rock Cafe guitar sign finds new home at Neon Museum
The Hard Rock Cafe sign was split into six pieces that will be taken to the Neon Museum’s Boneyard to become a new display. Brad Boyer | KSNV
From 3 NBC News: LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — One of the giant guitar signs that welcomed visitors to the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas has a new home.The Hard Rock Cafe sign was taken apart into six pieces so it could be transported from the Young Electric Sign Company to the Neon Museum starting Monday.
A spokesperson for the Neon Museum says the sign, made in the style of a Gibson Les Paul, stood in front of the Hard Rock Cafe for 27 years.
Building provides pathway to affordable senior housing in Asheboro
From The Courier-Tribune: ASHEBORO — New senior housing in Asheboro may be just around the corner.
City officials hope to see the former Parks Hosiery Mill/Acme-McCrary Mill No. 2, located at North Church Street and West Salisbury Street, transformed into a senior housing complex that will accommodate the growing elderly population in Randolph County.
The project is part of the city’s 2018-23 Central Business District Redevelopment Plan and is in accordance with Asheboro’s lasting goal to revitalize downtown.
Landmark Asset Services Inc., the proposed developer of the project, is the same developer responsible for the transformation of the Sunset Theatre, as well as the Asheboro Mill Lofts, which reconfigured two abandoned downtown mills into affordable housing for the community.
According to Landmark’s website, the company specializes in “adaptive reuse of historically significant structures to new construction.”
Will an LED upgrade make the UPMC sign brighter or dimmer?
The UPMC sign atop the U.S. Steel Tower on a foggy morning, Thursday Jan. 24, 2019, Downtown. Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: It can be seen from a plane flying over the city and even from a trail in the North Hills. And now it’s getting an upgrade.
UPMC is in the process of switching the lighting in the 20-foot-high lettering affixed to the top of the 64-story U.S. Steel Tower — going from neon to LED.
Gloria Kreps, a UPMC spokeswoman, said the change is already underway. The neon, she said, is being replaced “with more energy efficient LED lighting within the same letters.”
St. James General Store: Funding cuts a threat?
The St. James General Store in St. James is shown on Feb. 18, 2015. Photo Credit: David L. Pokress
From Newsday: The historic St. James General Store has been open for business without stop since 1857, but backers warn there’s not enough funding to buy merchandise to keep shelves full, threatening the quaint emporium.
A resolution from the county’s historic trust committee surfaced last Wednesday at the Council on Environmental Quality seeking money to replenish inventory so tourists and local residents can keep buying candy and souvenirs at the store, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
They say the same problem has occurred at the gift shop at the Big Duck in Flanders, the prime example of roadside architecture in Suffolk. The council passed its own resolution pressing for more funding to buy stock for both landmarks.