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Santa Fe sign removed from top of Chicago building
Wow, Motorola occupies one whole floor of the building and gets to displace the Santa Fe sign with their own. It makes me glad that I have a Radio Shack scanner.
Illinois Railway Museum listed at goodsearch.com .
Chicago was Santa Fe’s headquarters, and the sign was a familiar Chicago landmark that will be missed, but the desert southwest is “Santa Fe Country”. I hope the sign finds a good home out there somewhere.
Make Motorola pay for the sign to be moved and erected at the museum. They’re “we’re better than you” attitude has got to stop. They’re not that special.
Wow! Eighty-seven years! How many pieces of advertising last that long? I used to make round-trips by car up and down Lake Shore Drive in Chicago for many, many years and seeing the sign on Michigan Avenue beyond Grant Park was always “neat.”
This is an outrage. Interestingly, the Chicago Architectural Foundation http://www.architecture.org/ occupies the bottom floor of this building. (This non profit gives great tours.) I hope that the Foundation has some clout involving this classic and historical building…
Historic signs on historic buildings ought to remain. The Pan Am building in NYC, unless I am mistaken, still sports the sign that stood for Pan American World Airways, a “fallen flag” airline. The owner of that building thought that preserving the name and image on the building was worthwhile, even when the former largest tenant went defunct. At the rate Motorola is going it soon may fold, or at least undergo a name change.
The desert southwest may be “Santa Fe Country” to you, but to us in Chicago it was a key player: 16th Street Coach Yards, Dearborn Station, Corwith Yard, Checkpoint Chico, 90 MPH, the Super Chief, and yes the HQ at Jackson and Michigan with the great SANTA FE sign. Stupid move by Motorola.
Prudential Tower in Boston was sold several years ago- the sign “Prudential” remains atop the building- iconic.
Even the Citgo sign remains on top of a building in Kenmore Square after 50+ years because, simply, it is a landmark seen all over town, particularly from Fenway Park.
Where are the historic preservation commissions when you need them? Perhaps the Santa Fe sign will be restored after Motorola moves on…
Give me a break: Motorola??!!??
Good luck Nick. The sign surely belongs with your excellent collection.
What you talking about, Willis? Sad to see another piece of history dissapear.
I should have prefaced my comment about “the desert southwest” by saying that the best choice would have been to leave the sign where it was–I thought that went without saying.
Sorry to see the sign removed. I have visited the area many times and I always took note of the sign and how it fit in with the other beautiful architecture on that stretch of Michigan Avenue. I will look at the Motorola sign and always think Santa Fe.
Can’t landmark the languge of the sign when the language is still a active trademark of a company; in this case BNSF. The sign is landmarked, but not the language; as such Motorola and the building owner was able to change it, but retain similar size and color.