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If any building is the number one place and was to be dedicated as homage to sign displays, honors could easily point to One Times Square. It stands tall not only in height, but also throughout its 100 plus year history with its influence on iconic advertising, on sign displays, with its vinyl and electronic billboards and its timeless metaphors, all wedded to the building from top (the annual New Year's Eve ball drop) to bottom (the news zipper wrapped around the building's base). If Times Square is the Crossroads Of The World, then One Times Square is one of its guardians and attractions that brings the world's citizens to Times Square for that moment of cosmopolitan contact.

For all the different things that One Times Square is (tourist attraction, a New Year's Eve beacon and news center with its digital zipper reader board), the building is primarily a sign tower. Sign placements are like real estate: it's location, location, location for sign positioning. On an average day, Times Square will see at least one to one and a half million people cascading through its streets and sidewalks, and almost every one of those people will have a look at One Times Square as they pass it by. For New Year's Eve, with worldwide television coverage there are at least one billion viewers eyeballing this building.

The Times Tower is born
One Times Square's roots go back to the early 20th century when the newspaper, The New York Times, was building The Times Tower, its new headquarters in what was then called Long Acre Square. As its steel skeleton ascended into the sky, it was covered in brick, terra cotta and limestone. Upon completion in 1904, the 25-story skyscraper, at 395 feet was acknowledged the second tallest building in the world. As The Times Tower made its presence known, the surrounding area was renamed Times Square which even then with its Broadway theaters and New Year's Eve celebrations (also started by the NY Times) became the 'Town Square' of Manhattan.

The New York Times began conducting celebrations for New Year's Eve when the building was completed in 1904. 1907 was the first year the New Year's Eve Ball dropped from the building's roof. With its height, its tower could be seen for miles around midtown Manhattan and it became the perfect place for this rooftop celebration. Making it an illuminated ball increased its night visibility and was also a chance to show off a new technology - electricity. It's been an annual tradition ever since.

The Times Tower, when completed in 1904, was covered in brick, terra cotta and limestone. At that time, the 25-story skyscraper, at 395-feet was acknowledged as the second tallest building in the world.

Seen in 1907, the Times Tower was in rehearsal for what would then become its first New Year's Eve Time ball drop. As rare as this photo may be, even more interesting are the deserted streets directly in front of the building.

In 1928, the New York Times encircled its building with its famous "zipper" text message reader which was one of the earliest outdoor electronic message reader boards that provided the passing public with breaking news as it happened.

The Times Tower's first actual connection to the sign industry was in 1928 when the New York Times encircled its building with its famous "zipper" headliner, invented by Frank C. Reilly and was known at that time as the "Motogram" sign. This was one of the earliest outdoor incandescent message reader boards that provided the passing public with electronic messages about the breaking news as it happened. On an interesting note, Times Square is now flooded with various evolved electronic reader boards (Reuters, ABC, Morgan Stanley, etc) all based on the original 1928 Times Tower electric message board.

The Times Tower served its original masters until 1961, when Douglas Leigh (the man who brought animated billboards to Times Square and immortalized Time Square with its famous Camel billboard (with its ever repeating smoke ring), purchased and renamed the tower for the Allied Chemical Company, its major tenant at the time. To modernize its look, the entire building was reclad with a sleek marble exterior of vertical columns and panels. Even with its white vertical corrugated look, it continued its original traditions of displaying the zipper around the building and on top, and the ball drop at the stroke of midnight, New Years Eve. Leigh also initiated the program of setting and selling advertising on the outside of the Allied Chemical Building.

1970s: Getting your name in lights
As LED research was beginning to emerge as a science in its own right, other forms of electronics were also being developed as sign face components. By the 1970s, two great 20th century inventions were combined to create a new era in sign displays. Computers and television gave birth to electronic signage from which was born 'Spectacolor.'

Spectacolor's (NY, NY) Visual Broadcast System was touted as America's first full color, optical display system and was mounted on the north face of the Allied Chemical Building directly above the famed zipper reader board that encircled the building. The illuminated panel (at 20 feet high by 40 feet in length) was formed of thousands (8,000-plus bulbs). Portraying text, graphics, animations and video imagery at a whopping 8.5 frames per second (a far cry from today's 30 fps), it was then electronic signage as state-of-the-art.

This was, in effect, one of the world's first electronic billboards where programmable, multiple messages were advertised, one after the other on a single billboard. The sign was well received by the national advertising community as soon as it went live.

Spectacolor's Visual Broadcast System was touted as America's first full color, electronic sign mounted on the north face of the Allied Chemical Building directly above its famed zipper reader board that encircled the building. The illuminated panel (at 20 feet high by 40 feet in length provided text, graphics, animations and video imagery at a whopping 8.5 frames per second which was then the state-of-the-art of electronic signage.

The Spectacolor Visual Broadcast System, developed by George Stonbley who invented the Spectacolor sign system, set the pattern for today's electronic billboard advertising where time slots on the board were sold on a 'radio model' (selling 10, 20 and 30 second spots), rather than the traditional billboard route, which used a print model of selling space for a single ad spot from several weeks to several moths. The billboard also set the pattern of usage by not only selling mostly branding (about 80%) and some advertising, but also supporting public service announcements and weather reports. For the regular guy in the street, he could buy a spot for $25.00 and put his name in lights. Stonbely noted, "People have proposed to each other on that sign and have had birthdays, anniversaries and Be My Valentine all flashed in lights on Times Square.

Talk about location and history repeating itself, this was the second time a famous electronic sign was first placed on this building. Here the Allied Chemical Building became the first home of a soon-to-be world famous electronic sign system. In 1928, it was the "zipper" with its horizontal traveling text messages and now, (1976) through the efforts of George Stonbley, the first electronic, animated graphic image board. The Spectracolor display used an ancient CRT display technology, but still presented the birth of the electronic display industry which begat a multitude of competitors. In a bit of irony, 34 years later just about the entire front of One Times Square is now covered with high definition, full color LED displays.

LED display boards began to appear around 1997 and slowly began to fill up Times Square. Today almost all of the surrounding Times Square area is covered (practically wall-to-wall) with all kinds of full color, LED video displays, and all whose lineage can be traced directly back to Spectracolor's original CRT sign in 1976.

One Times Square stands tall
Although it already had an advertising prominence in Times Square in 1996, the building again changed owners and its new masters, Sherwood Outdoor and Jamestown acquired One Times Square. In preparing the building for upcoming use, it became obvious during the planning stage that it was not going to be cost effective to rehabilitate the building for new tenants to occupy as explained by Paul Collins, operations manager of Sherwood. "The last building upgrade was in 1965 by its then owner Allied Chemical. To bring the building up to 1996 standards with new wiring, new HVAC (heating, venting and air conditioning) and mechanical upgrades turned out not to be feasible from a financial point of view, given the smallish physical space that each floor provided."

Fortunately an even more appealing choice appeared: transforming the building from a tenant occupied facility into a sign tower literally at the cross roads of Times Square. The building was then marketed as a sign tower and in no time became an advertising benchmark for representing Times Square.

To implement this strategy, the building remained tenantless. To allow the vinyl (and soon LED ) signs to be properly attached to the building, a billboard frame was placed completely around the front of One Times Square from just above the zipper, directly to the roof, 23-stories above. Given the space allotment for each potential billboard, the building sign grid was positioned for twenty-two different sign placements (five electronic and 17 vinyl).

By the late 1990s, three of the four sides of One Times Square were completely covered in vinyl sign faces. Its north side, the world renown side that faces the Times Square 'bow tie,' where 7th Avenue crosses Broadway, was mostly covered from top to bottom in electronic LED video screens and in one case, an LED and neon billboard. Reviewing its famous side at that time, and starting from the top down,

• the flag pole with The Time Ball
• the uppermost LED sign was Discover card (LED video screen by Panasonic),
• below that TDK Electronics (LED video screen by Daktronics),
• NissAn Cup of Noodles (backlit flexible face with a background of neon and real steam emanates off the top of the noodles cup).
• underneath was Budweiser's (LED background by Daktronics and a LED video screen by Panasonic's). The Budweiser bottle also HAD a mechanical element to it that TIPPED the bottle back and forth.
• on the bottom, the NBC screen (LED video by Panasonic's)
• and below that, the zipper messenger reader board (news feed by Dow Jones).
• then the zipper was a vinyl display for Warner Brothers.

One Times Square in the mid-1990s where the lower part of the building was fully covered in various spectaculars including the Nisson Cup of Noodles (backlit flexible face with a background of neon), and underneath was Budweiser's original LED video screen. On the bottom was the NBC / Panasonic screen and below that, the zipper messenger reader board (news feed by Dow Jones). Underneath the zipper, was a vinyl display for Warner Brothers.

"As for the other three building sides in the late 1990s, there are about 15 or so vinyl signs, each approximately 55 feet high by 60 feet wide. TDK continued from North face with its electronic billboard transforming to a vinyl which completely wrapped around the rest of the building. We also had other vinyl signs including Washington Mutual, the United States Post Office and Buffalo Jeans on the other sides of One Times Square. Collins noted, "There are a few single sign placements, but we prefer to sell the other sides as completes when we can do it. It keeps the building from looking cluttered and it gives the advertisers more bang for the buck."

Collins also said that although vinyl covers the other three sides of One Times Square, he'd be happy to sell placement opportunities for LED billboards on its other sides as well. One immediate change to the building in 1997 was a transformation of the zipper from its original incandescent bulbs to LEDs. Honors to Daktronics (Brooking, South Dakota) who completely revamped the original lighting with a modern monochromatic amber electronic message look.

"For leasing sign positions on the building, on the North face, we try to do at least a ten-year deal per position. On the other three sides, it's a six-month minimum leasing arrangement on the building. As of Spring, 2002, 99 % of the building is completely covered in signs. At that time, one position was opening up for leasing."

The signage on One Times Square has dramatically changed since its latest owners, Jamestown and Sherwood Equities have taken over the building management. As advertising leases end, some clients renew while others move on and are replaced with new clients. (New make-overs are discussed in Part II: One Times Square: The Incredible Changing Building)

One Times Square under wraps
Leasing the signs is one thing, keeping them on the building in tiptop condition is another, and Landmark Signs and Electrical (NY, NY) maintains that responsibility for One Times Square. The company is a full service sign and service provider which does everything from fabrication to installation, and once built, maintains and repairs the signs as required. Landmark serves the New York City metropolitan area and also handles much of the other various signage in Times Square.

Tony Calvano, president of Landmark and his staff, keeps the signs on the building in pristine shape. "We put up all the vinyl on One Times Square and maintain the incandescent lighting systems that illuminate the signs at night. There is also some chase lighting on the building that we also service." Calvano noted that Landmark also deals with all the electronic signs on the building's famous North face. "We survey all those electronic signs at least twice a day to make sure they're always at 100%. We do a lot of preventive maintenance for them and have crews that go into the signs to maintain the integrity of each unit's heating, venting and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. We're constantly changing out filters and cleaning fans as there's a lot of construction going on right now in Times Square and the fans and filters tend to get clogged up quickly."

The Time Ball drops
On the day-to-day basis, One Times Square is the premiere location in the world for outdoor advertising placements. The building, however is more than just a sign tower, its real moment of glory is every New Year's Eve when the ball is dropped from a pole on the roof. New Years Eve in Times Square goes back to 1904 when the building's original owners began conducting roof-top celebrations to usher in the New Year.

106 years later, Times Square is still the number one place to gather in the US for New Year's Eve and each year, over a half million people will hold court in the Square, waiting for that final moment. Being in Times Square on New Years Eve, people come to watch the countdown and see the moment of transition which is symbolically marked by the dropping of the silver crystal illuminated ball from the roof of One Times Square.

The Ball Drop, as it is known, occurs one day a year, several strokes before midnight. Although the Ball Drop is quick, its sixty-second descent is planned for during the entire year that precedes it. While One Times Square is partially owned by Sherwood Outdoor, the ball drop is maintained as a separate event and owned and managed by Countdown Entertainment, who is the exclusive representative of the Ball Drop's year end celebration. "The Ball Drop," as noted by Jeff Straus, president, of Countdown "is New York's biggest annual promotion and takes all year to plan for, including finding sponsors, coordinating all the event participation during the six hours between the raising of the ball at 6:00 PM till its drop at midnight. There's also the planning and management of the pyrotechnics which go off at midnight."

As for the famous last sixty seconds when the crystal ball is actually lowered down the flagpole, its organization is managed by Landmark and Tony Calvano's staff who prepares the ball for its one minute prior to midnight claim to fame. "To get the crystal ball ready for that night, Calvano said, "We install the rigging and the ball on One Times Square's roof top pole. Before that it takes us about two weeks of prep work for the final sixty- second drop, which includes fabricating each New Year's new numbers for the upcoming year and installing them. We also maintain the actual sixty second ball drop operation as the clock strikes midnight."

The Time Ball circa 2000 A.D.
The Ball Drop in Times Square stems from an even older ritual in England when a descending Time Ball was a popular method of signaling noon to allow pocket watches and nearby at sea ships chronometer's to be reset daily. This tradition continues onward today in Washington D.C. at the United States Naval Observatory where it still drops a Time Ball down a flag pole every day at noon. The latest incarnation of the New York's Year's Eve Time Ball is six-feet in diameter and weighs 1,070 pounds. The spherical design is a geodesic dome covered with 504 Waterford crystal triangles and illuminated with 600 multi-colored Philips Habgena light bulbs, 96 high intensity strobe lights and 92 rotating pyramid mirrors. The ball is placed on a 77-foot pole and when dropped, will descend the pole's length in the last ten seconds of the year.

A giant among its peer skyscrapers
As Times Square is being completely rebuilt with a new neighborhood of 40 - 50 story skyscrapers, One Times Square, although only a 25 story building stands as a giant among its companions. "The building is as much as an international icon as it ever was," says Sherwood's Collins. "We have the added value for our customers that at one time or another, everyone with a television will see this building, either in the news on any television coverage of Times Square, or from any movie about New York City. You can build anything you want around One Times Square, but that doesn't change what the building stands for or does."

Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance (TSA) noted, "For all the activity of new construction around Times Square, One Times Square remains a constant in the sea of change of its surrounding skyline amidst all the heightened intensity and frenetic energy of the area, it continues to be the "voice" and representational icon of Times Square."

The Original One Times Square articles by Louis M Brill
Signage in the crossroads of the world

Since this article was completed in 2003, the sign activity on One Times Square has continued non-stop with new spectaculars replacing those whose leases were not renewed.
To continue reading about One Times Square's additional sign changes Click here!

Readers who wish to follow the entire story of Times Square can follow with these other pieces related to its history: One Times Square: A Global Icon Marks Time - 2003-2010, Part III In this third and final part of One Times Square, we examine even more of the fascinating, ever-evolving changes to this iconic landmark and how technology plays a very interesting and important role. One Times Square: A Global Icon Marks Time - 2003-2010, Part II Slowly, but surely between 2003 to 2010, one spectacular display after another on One Times Square has been upgraded with a more modern version of itself or outright replaced with a new client and a new spectacular. One Times Square Revisions: Signage in the crossroads of the world through the years If any building was to be dedicated as homage to sign displays, honors could easily point to One Times Square. It stands tall not only in height, but also throughout its 100 plus year history with its influence on iconic advertising, on sign displays, with its vinyl and electronic billboards and its timeless metaphors, all wedded to the building from top (the annual New Year's Eve ball drop) to the bottom (the news zipper wrapped around the building's base). Toy's R Us Interior EDS Signage The Center of the Toy Universe can be found in Times Square and it's operated by Toys 'R Us. With 110,000 square feet of various toy shopping zones, all aligned within three floors of merchandising space, the toy universe is a vast space. LED Electronic Message Reader Boards: Watching the world go by in streaming headlines The electronic message reader board is the town crier of the modern age. It is a simplistic, horizontal column of light bulbs or LEDs whose intermediate flashes of world watching headlines, slide effortlessly across reader board signs attached to banks and financial institutions and to the front walls of major corporate headquarters. King Kong Embraces Times Square with Electronic Signage Debut The latest remake of the King Kong epic, directed by Peter Jackson, sought out its east coast premiere in the place where the big ape met his demise, in New York City. Nothing is too good for the premiere of his latest film and only in New York City could a film of such epic proportion have an opening of similar grandeur. Hershey’s ­ How Sweet It Is: The Eye-Candy of Times Square In the middle of all its surrounding Times Square spectaculars, billboards and sign edifices, stands the flagship Hershey Times Square, a retail gift store which is a chocolate confectionary paradise that is the center of the chocolate universe. Minskof Theater The Minskoff Theatre (1,597 seats), one of the many major live performing venues along Broadway has recently undergone a signage transformation of its old blade / marquee and window display into a very modern and elegant sign package that was fit for a king: The Lion King that was. ABC Times Square It may be home to ABC's Good Morning America, but to Times Square passersby it is the building with the curvy front wall that is a gigantic television screen displaying current news and ABC TV previews all day long. Signs of Love: A spectacular marriage proposal on the white lights of Broadway This is a story of unrequited love converged with New York City's first electronic billboard, where a marriage proposal was displayed in all its glory directly above the Crossroads of the World.

Louis M. Brill is a journalist and consultant for high-tech entertainment and media communications.
He can be reached at (415) 664-0694 or louisbrill@sbcglobal.net