Sunday, January 8, 2012

Neon sign

whats more american than a huge neon sign?
during our trip we saw so many, also many still standing, but not used anymore..... just recently i read that its extremely expensive to restore such a huge sign (they talked about 35,000 dollars!). above is in boston, a sign that was installed in 1910. in 2006 it was refurbished and turned on again, after having been off for several decades. (ah, here i found that this costed 200,000 dollars!! so much?!) it was bought and restored by the development company that is making fancy apartments of all those old buildings around there. last time, somewhere last year, we walked around there it still looked pretty empty, although there were many signs for apartments for rent or sale.... today we just went on the bridge, to picture the buildings in the setting sun.... why is it always just for a few minutes that everything has that special glow?!
here i found a website that reports about the restoration of neon sings along route 66. not a cheap business either...

7 comments:

Eleanor said...

I think I remember where this is located. I left Boston 27 years ago. There used to be a huge neon Coca Cola sign on Memorial Drive and of course there's the Citgo sign! Brings back fond memories. Thanks for sharing.

biebkriebels said...

I love those sudden lights in winter, it is like someone put on a spotlight and you suddenly see a building in a whole different way. Great, it almost glows.

Kay said...

You caught that special glow beautifully! It comes and goes so fast but is so worth seeing. I had no idea that those signs were so expensive. I suppose I should appreciate them a little more, though it's not one of my favorite art forms.

Nellies said...

Beautiful photo CaT, I love those neon signs!

CaT said...

@eleanor; this is in south boston, i think its called fort point...
i photographed the citgo sign a few times, too! but that one i dont like too much. the cocacola sign is gone, i read it is in storage or something, to be restored/replaced, but that people protested against hanging it back...

Ralf said...

For me the huge signs are typical for the United States. Great street.

Anonymous said...

This is Awesome!