Back in the day, The Crowne Plaza looked like this:

Glory days – The Crown Plaza at 1605 Broadway, sans Hershey’s

The hotel’s identity was established by the famous (“iconic” in millenialsprach) illuminated sign cabinet since it’s opening in 1989. The pandemic killed the Crowne Plaza. It was renovated under Gensler’s vision and rebranded by Hyatt. The ginormous 60-foot wide sign cabinet remains while long term solutions are being considered. Until then, we were asked to cover it. Carl designed a clever bumper system that allowed us to wrap the cabinet without fussing with thousands of bulbs. We demounted the channel letters and set about fabricating the bumpers and installing a safe mesh wrap.

Here’s the lead up:

And here’s a video of the mesh face being unfurled: