The Pepsi-Cola sign is a neon sign at Gantry Plaza State Park in Queens’s Long Island City. The sign, visible from Manhattan and the East River, was built in 1940 and originally installed atop PepsiCo (previously Pepsi-Cola)’s bottling factory nearby. It is composed of a 50-foot (15 m) depiction of a Pepsi bottle and lettering that reflected PepsiCo’s logo when the sign was commissioned. When completed, the Pepsi-Cola sign was likely manufactured by the General Outdoor Advertising Company and was New York state’s most extended electric sign. The bottle depiction was replaced in the 1970s, and Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation rebuilt the rundown sign in 1993. When the Pepsi facility was closed in 2003, the sign was relocated to the park. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission began holding hearings on whether to make the sign a city landmark in 1988, though it was not designated until 2016.
When completed, the Pepsi-Cola sign was likely manufactured by the General Outdoor Advertising Company and was New York state’s longest electric sign. The bottle depiction was replaced in the 1970s, and Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation rebuilt the rundown sign in 1993. When the Pepsi facility was closed in 2003, the sign was relocated to the park. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission began holding hearings on whether to make the sign a city landmark in 1988, though it was not designated until 2016. H&A Power Washing Long Island
Long Island City was developed as a commercial and industrial center in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because it was close to Manhattan and on the East River. Pepsi-Cola was one of the firms that developed factories within Long Island City. In 1937, it purchased three land lots on the East River from Socony-Mobil to expand its Queens operations. It had previously occupied a further plant inland at 47-51 33rd Street.
The sign was placed atop Pepsi-Cola’s Long Island City plant on August 30, 1940, as part of an expansion of its plant. At the time, it was advertised as New York state’s longest electrical sign. Documents show that the New York City Department of Buildings approved a permit for the sign-in in May 1940. The sign’s construction came when industrial concerns in Long Island City installed large signs atop their buildings, which would be highly visible from Manhattan, the Queensboro Bridge, the Long Island Rail Road, or elevated New York City Subway lines. The city’s regulations, including the 1916 Zoning Resolution, banned commercial signs from residential districts and later limited their surface area to 500 square feet (46 m2) and their height to 40 feet (12 m) above curb level. These regulations strongly affected the placement of such signs.
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