Archinect - News

Chicago Mayor considers scaling back sign limits on office towers to lure Salesforce

2018-09-25T13:21:00-04:00

The 20-foot-tall letters spelling “T-R-U-M-P” on the city’s second-tallest building prompted Chicago aldermen four years ago to regulate the installation of large signs on office buildings. Now, Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to tweak that ordinance to help secure a huge expansion by software firm Salesforce in a new riverfront skyscraper. The city’s Department of Planning and Development [...] unveiled a plan that would allow larger signs on office towers, depending on how high signs are placed.

Who could forget the epic 2014 spat between Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin, backed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and New York-based real estate developer Donald Trump over the controversial "TRUMP" letters on his hotel and condo tower in the city (Kamin's tempestuous relationship with Trump goes even further back)?

Bye-bye 30 Rock. Hello Comcast Building.

2015-07-07T13:23:00-04:00

Manhattan’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the focal point of Rockefeller Center and home to the NBC television network, has changed its name to the Comcast Building. Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal will illuminate a sign with the new name and NBC logo atop the 850-foot (259-meter) building [...]. Comcast Building is the third official name for the landmark property, completed in 1933.

Old Guy Fight! Tribune’s Blair Kamin vs. Donald Trump

2014-11-20T17:14:00-05:00

Watching two grown men in a social media hissy fit over a building sign is actually a lot more amusing than one might think. In this corner, Donald Trump, rich guy, who, in the view of one esteemed newspaper critic, has defiled our fine city by slapping his name on the side of his silvery, shiny building. In the other corner, Blair Kamin, decorated architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune and defender of building aesthetics.