Metro Matt

IMO the outling of buildings with neon, LEDs, or whatever is just wrong. It is banal. The "ziggurat" of the Heritage Plaza building should be uplit like the "tempieto" of the Esperson Building. This would better show the geometry that makes the building interesting in the first place.

Running strings of light around the tops of tall buildings is just unimaginative. Perhaps a stage set designer could come up with better ideas - or a third grader.

The whole building isn't outlined with lights, just the shoulders. I agree they do need to at least flood light that whole top feature if they're going to outline the shoulders.

Those are probably LED's spaced really close together on a string or difused in plastic tubes made to look like glass neon tubes. I highly doubt they would go back to the old neon. Its not as energy efficient & its a safety hazard with the high voltage transformers used to power the neon. The downside of using LED's is their life expectancy can be cut drastically short if allowed to over heat, over powered, or just not designed properly. Neon actually burns brighter as ambient temperature gets hotter. LED's are the opposite, they in theory like cooler temperatures below 80 degrees & burn much brighter the colder it is. In places where it stays hot all the time LED's are not a wise choice. Texas kinda falls in between that fine line.

I like those cool white lights a whole lot better than the warm white Christmas lights they normally turn on during the holidays. Wish they would turn on the "eagle" that used to outline the top in white neon. There was a time after they turned it off they just lit the small top portion of the roof in white neon. It looked dumb,

I haev noticed that the Continental Airlines building lighting is back on this month, which is good.

With the white or blue floodlights?

it would be neat if the buildings would coordinate with the sports teams.

For instance, Baylor when they win a game, the light one of the buildings gold, and green for a loss (IIRC) they have a lot of green during football season, but it would be neat to have something like that, with all the different color options they have.

Why would Houston have a building do that? Baylor is in Waco.

Just sayin.

Wells Fargo Plaza will light up in different colors for holidays & special events only. During the rest of the year they'll probably just keep it white like it used to be is what I'm guessing.

Wells has always had a band of white neon around the top ever since it was first built, but on two occasions it hasn't been on. Shortly after the collapse of Enron because their building also had a similar band of white neon around the very top & Wells Fargo didn't want to have that kind of bad image. The second time several years later after people finally got over the whole Enron thing they started lighting Wells Fargo Plaza again then Hurricane Rita came & wrecked havoc on the fragile glass neon lighting up there. I'm sure with that insurance money they used part of it to get their new color changing LED setup.

I dont think the opinions of the ten people in this thread are going to matter/change too much of downtowns lighting.

You never know...

There are probably more high profile guests floating around on these forums than we realize.

So are Chase Towers new LED lights still lit? What color are they now?

Did Wells Fargo ever turn their back on?

Yeah, I'll verify this too. The rumor somewhere on here was that the LED on Wells Fargo was damaged by Ike, and the small LED piece that came on was probably malfunctioning due to the damage. I have noticed recently, however, that the same small LED piece has been cycling through different colors. I never saw it cycle through colors when the entire top of WF was lit.

I fear I'm the one who got that rumor started. It wasn't until after Ike though that those white pieces started going out.

Yes, I'm absolutely sure that it's Wells Fargo, and the one LED piece constantly changes color, just going through the spectrum. It could be a new LED or the LED that was already there just on the fritz (which wouldn't surprise me given the trouble they've been having with those). I thought the lights were neon too until I went to a function at the top of One Shell a few months ago when Wells Fargo's lights were actually on. You can actually see the little lights that make up the LED strips.

Sorry Governor, I didn't mean to doubt you. I was actually just down in Houston for the weekend & made it a point to check this out. Sure enough, you were right. Those are color changing LED's on top of Wells Fargo Plaza!

FWIW it looks like Wells Fargo could possibly have a bit of a different lighting scheme. It looks almost like an LED is either being tested or malfunctioning beause its one small piece that's on and changing color--similar to the new lighting on the Phoenix Tower.

Say what?

Wells Fargo has always had a sometimes functioning, sometimes not functioning band of white neon around the very top. Are you sure you weren't seeing the Reliant Energy tower with its color changing LED's in the background? It wasn't till after Hurricane Ike those pieces of white neon started to go out.

I don't hate it. At first, I hated it because of what it stood for, now I am growing to like it from a more artistic point of view. I don't see it as unproportionate, in fact I think it fits the building well. Also, the lighting, fluorescent or neon, reminds me of many works of the minimalist Dan Flavin, who of course has a permanent installation in Richmond Hall at the Menil Collection, but on a much larger scale.

Its not lit with fluorescent or neon...its LED's.

The electric cross is butt-ugly, just like the one on I-45. But, I don't care if it stays lit. We have uglier things in this town that need our derision more.

Like all of the strip clubs lining I-45 with large search lights pointing to the heavens? I'm sure those abide by city code very well too.

The Chron reports that the bell tower upon which the cross stands is 140 feet tall.

Source:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/side2/5657809.html

Sixth paragraph under "Growing community".

CoCath is an awesome church! I've attended mass there a couple of times in the new one & once in the old one across the street.

If a corporation were to propose putting its logo up on the side of a building like that along with backlighting, it wouldn't have been allowed a permit from the City of Houston for reasons stated in the Sign Code.

Why does a religious symbol get a pass when a corporate logo or other advertisement does not?

Maybe because churches & other religiously affiliated businesses are exempt? How come I don't see an uproar on here over the newly constructed Co-Cathedral Catholic Church in downtown? The cross on top of that thing has got to be at least 200 feet in height & is clearly visible from the Pierce Elevated.

Yep, just the same as Spec's on Washington Avenue.

Gotta love this city's lack of zoning laws. If we had zoning, it wouldn't be Houston.

I thought there would be more information on it, but here's one of the several approved permits:

Project No: 09042254

Date: 2009/05/12 00:00:00

USE: O/S N3 ILUM 1FC 63X3X70 ST. JOSEPH PROF

Owner/Occupant: *ST JOSEPH

Job Address: 2000 CRAWFORD ST 77002

Valuation: $ 0

Permit Type: EG

FCC Group: On Premise;New Sign;Wall;Internal Light

Buyer: *SOUTHWEST/BLM

Address: 1512 W 34TH ST 77018

Phone: (713) 699-4488

So there you have it folks! St. Joseph's sign is perfectly legit & up to code.

Carry on...

Well that seems like a pretty weak analogy IMHO. I don't think anyone said that the big white cross should be illegal. Of course we're "free" to burn a flag, but any business owner who paints a big burning flag up the side of a 15-story building and light it up with red neon at night would be rather naive to think that wouldn't generate a little internet forum discussion... to say the least.

(And I don't think it would be legal to go to the St. Joseph's lobby and burn a cross. They're legal, but not on other people's property.)

If someone hated this country that much to do that to their building they shouldn't even be here in the first place, especially after 9/11...now that's just a little scary. Yes, the lobby might be pushing it just a bit, I think you should go right now to St. Joseph's & walk down the street on city property burning a wooden cross. Go, go, go!!! I'll have my eyes glued to the TV for the 10 o' clock news I promise!

I don't see what the big deal either.

My only wish is that they didn't quite make it so bright, lower the voltage a bit.

Voltage has nothing to do with the brightness of a light source, its the wattage. LED's typically use only 24 volts vs. 15,000 for neon. Kudo's to St. Joseph's for "going green" on the exterior lighting.

If a corporation were to propose putting its logo up on the side of a building like that along with backlighting, it wouldn't have been allowed a permit from the City of Houston for reasons stated in the Sign Code.

Why does a religious symbol get a pass when a corporate logo or other advertisement does not?

Do you know exactly whats stated in the Harris County sign code law? If so, enlighten us a bit, no pun intended...

I've always heard & read its on buildings over a certain height, in which case St. Joseph's might not qualify only being an 18 story building. Houston is allowed to have X-rated billboards on the sides of its freeways, when a cross on a building gets peoples goat? I don't get it.

Some people just need to get over their insecurities about religion in general. Its a free country, get over it already. If you want to burn a flag or a cross as protest you're free to do it, so if a cross on St. Joseph irks you that bad, go burn one in the lobby, just be prepared to show your face be on the 5 o'clock news.

Whats the big deal? I drove by St. Joseph's on I-45 the other night & was immediately drawn to it. Its practically one of the only buildings in downtown that's lit up anymore besides the Continental building.

I remember a similar distaste not too long ago from some Dallasites about One Arts Plaza's large square which is lit up the same way using bright white LED's.

Hess Discovery Tower sounds 1000 times better IMO. Oh wells...

My guess is the blue lighting was damaged by Ike. Possibly lenses that got blown off exposing the white sodium floods underneath.

I miss the lighting on the Wedge Tower. I wish they'd bring that back.

Wedge still does light the very top borders from time to time, but the whole thing hasn't been lit up in years.

Can anyone tell me if they have shut the beacon off? The last couple of times that I have seen the Galleria area at night, it hasn't been on. I tried to do some research to see if any of the news stations had any reports on it but I couldn't find anything. I just had this huge fear that because of high gas prices they might have shut it down for a while or something.

Thanks!

Hmm

Was it after midnight when you saw it?

The beacon usually comes on right at dusk & shuts off exactly at midnight.

Maintenance maybe?

What ever happened to the Van's skate park off I-10? Was that thing just a flash in the pan?