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Should companies be allowed to put their logos on skyscrapers?

by Andrew Thompson

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In the city's Municipal Services Building, in the office of the Zoning Board, sits a manila folder filled with letters teeming with invective. Most are written by owners of million-dollar-plus condos. "Hideously massive," "appalled," "a blemish," they say. They're reactions to an attempt by Unisys Corp. to place two 900-square-foot glowing red signs on the eastern and western facades of Two Liberty Place — one of the iconic pieces of the Philly skyline.

Unisys will also, however, have to fight off a lawsuit. In May, the Residences at Two Liberty Place (the company that manages the building's condos), along with Two Liberty Hospitality, which plans to open a restaurant in the building, sued Unisys for breach of contract, arguing that the company didn't have the requisite 85 percent of the condominium association's votes to modify the building's exterior. (Unisys declined to explain its legal position.) The building's rules state that any "major decision" must be approved by 85 percent of voters, but are ambiguous about whether an exterior modification constitutes a "major decision."

Should the sign be rejected, either in court or in the planning process, it would sting for the company: Unisys chose Two Liberty partly for its architectural advertising potential. "One of the reasons to move downtown was because of the visibility it could offer our company," says spokesman Brian Daly. "Putting up signage is a key part of that."

Unisys' most ardent supporter in this ordeal has been the city, which, of course, is always courting corporate citizens. Of the dozens of letters filed with the Zoning Board, only two were endorsements: one by 5th District Councilman Darrell Clarke, and one by Deputy Mayor Andrew Altman. Altman reasoned that the economic value of bringing Unisys downtown would outweigh any complaints about aesthetics or property values — a major concern of residents who worry that Two Liberty could become a de facto "Unisys Building."

Clarke cited the Center City Residents' Association, which originally did not oppose the signage. But after a May meeting in which attendees voiced unanimous opposition to the Unisys sign, CCRA is now opposing it, says Adam Schneider, co-chairman of the CCRA Zoning Committee.

Clarke's letter came before the CCRA's change of heart. The councilman says he "will review their position and act accordingly."

Though the Art Commission gave the go-ahead for the Unisys sign, some members expressed concern over what precedent they might be setting. Would logos begin sprouting on skyscrapers across Center City?

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Although the city has granted variances for signage in the past (for Aramark, for example), this is the first case in which it might do so for a partially residential building, or for such a landmark structure.

To Scott Pratt, the decision is intolerable. Pratt designed Two Liberty with Helmut Jahn (Jahn signed the letter that calls the signs "a blemish") and says the building simply wasn't designed to showcase signage on upper floors.

"The sign appears to be too large graphically, so it's placed at a very clumsy location on the building," says Pratt. "The building was designed to put signs on the lower level, to comply with signage standards."

This debate between promotion and aesthetics has been raging in American cities for years. Hartford, Conn., has encouraged insurance companies to post logos on their offices to brand itself an insurance capital, and Denver has been renovating a section of its downtown, to create a "Times Square-feel." But residents sometimes blanche at companies laying claim to the identities of iconic skyscrapers. Such was the case in Pittsburgh, when the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center placed its logo atop the historic U.S. Steel Tower. And Henry Cobb, renowned architect of Los Angeles' Library Tower, still hasn't recovered from seeing his structure crowned with the U.S. Bank logo.

"It's hard to imagine anything worse," he says.

(editorial@citypaper.net)