[NYguy]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...149737190.html

Skyline Shakeup
Huge H&M Sign Soon Will Shine Atop 4 Times Square.





August 11, 2013
By ELIOT BROWN

Logos of corporate behemoths in finance and media have long adorned Midtown Manhattan's skyline. Now, a Swedish purveyor of trendy, moderately priced clothing is preparing to upstage them. In what is likely to be the most prominent corporate logo crowning a New York skyscraper, workers are in the process of readying four illuminated "H&M" panels for retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB that are to be installed atop 4 Times Square at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue.

With panels on each side of the building measuring 70 feet by 70 feet, the sign is expected to be completed later this year. The marketing move accompanies a 42,500-square-foot H&M retail store that is being built in the base of the 48-story tower, which also serves as publisher Condé Nast's headquarters.

H&M signed a lease with the building's owner, the Durst Organization, in October for both the sign and what is poised to be the clothier's 13th Manhattan store. The company has been rapidly expanding in New York, and is planning a new 57,000-square-foot flagship on Fifth Avenue and 48th Street, four blocks from its current flagship on Fifth Avenue.

"They certainly understood the value of skyline signage," said Tom Bow, director of leasing at Durst. "The views and the eyeballs on the skyline are going to be tremendous."

Some nearby residents say the forthcoming H&M sign stands to be on another level, given its size.

"I think it's ridiculous," Marisa Redanty, a community activist who lives further west on 42nd Street, said when shown a rendering of the planned signage. "It's very un-classy—it's tacky, and it's like, 'Are we going to look like Tokyo?'"

http://www.rew-online.com/2012/10/09...e-and-a-store/