"I suppose it was never even considered to remove all that signage and restore the facade?"
A couple of points about that. First, the facade to which you refer was never particularly distinguished and even when it was unobstructed it was largely lost in a jumble of other (even less distinguished) building. Second, the heritage of Times Square is in its bright lights and signage, not its facades, so restoring the facade to the time of its creation (a time when Broadway was not "Broadway") would, in effect, obscure the way in which marked the emergence of Times Square as the crossroads of the world. Look at that facade when Judy first landed there in '51. (Lots of them easy to find.) You can barely see the facade peeking through and I doubt most pedestrians ever even noticed.
I am all for preserving the good stuff but this is not it. I do share your lack of enthusiasm for the project though, but for me it is more of rolling my eyes than beating on the table. |
