QUEENS — A hearing Thursday will collect public input on whether Long Island City's Pepsi Cola sign should be a city landmark.
The sign, a glowing and iconic presence on the Hunters Point waterfront, is one of dozens of sites across the city that have been in the Landmarks Preservation Commission's backlog. Like the other sites, it's been under landmark consideration for years, but was never actually voted on.
Last year, the LPC planned to quietly remove nearly 100 sites from consideration, but backed off the plan after outcry from preservationists. Now the agency is holding a series of hearings this fall to consider each of the sites for potential landmark designation.
The enormous Pepsi Cola sign was built in 1936 by Artkraft Signs to adorn the top of a two-story building that was part of the Pepsi bottling plant on the Long Island City waterfront, according to the LPC.
When the plant building was torn down, the 60-foot-high sign was relocated a short distance away, and today sits directly in front of a residential apartment building at 4610 Center Blvd.
The sign was first considered for landmarking in 1988, when it got mixed reviews from the public, according to the LPC's research file. The Municipal Art Society of New York testified in favor of landmarking at the time, saying the sign "represents an era of neon sign technology which is all but obsolete."
But Claire Schulman, who was the borough president at the time, wrote in a letter to the commission that she was "adamantly opposed" to giving the sign landmark protection. She was concerned that doing so would interfere with residential development planned for the Long Island City waterfront, records show.
A hearing on the Pepsi sign — as well as several other Queens sites, including the Spanish Towers and the Fairway Apartments in Jackson Heights — will take place Thursday from 12:30 to 3 p.m. on the ninth floor of 1 Centre St. in Manhattan.
For more information, visit the LPC's website.
