LOWER MANHATTAN — Downtown's tallest skyscraper is getting a holiday makeover.
Over the weekend, electrical workers at 1 World Trade Center began installing colored wrappers around the lights in the 90-story tower, creating a festive display that glows red, green, yellow, blue, pink and purple.
The workers, with Five Star Electric, put up the lights on their own time, because they wanted to bring some holiday spirit to Lower Manhattan, said Anthony Giannico, senior project manager at the company.
"There's always so much sadness coming out of Ground Zero," Giannico said. "We thought it would be nice to give people in the area something to smile about."
The workers started near the top of the tower, wrapping brightly colored cellophane around the 16 perimeter lights on each floor, Giannico said.
Under the leadership of general foreman Frank Leonard, the workers were gradually making their way down and had finished more than half of the tower as of Monday night, Giannico said.
Along the east side of the building, the workers also added colored lights to an exterior elevator, alternating red and white for each floor.
"It looks like a giant candy cane," Giannico said.
Five Star Electric put up holiday lights at 1 World Trade Center for the first time last year, when the tower was 50 stories tall, and got such a positive response, including from families of 9/11 victims, that the company decided to do it again, Giannico said.
Five Star Electric also lit 1 World Trade Center red, white and blue on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and pink in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
