The Queens Pepsi-Cola Sign Is Officially A NYC Landmark

The Queens Pepsi-Cola sign in Long Island City earned landmark status on Tuesday, joining the ranks of the Prospect Park Boathouse, the Whitehall Ferry Terminal, and the New York Savings Bank in all of its corporate, neon glory. The 147-foot-long sign made it through a Landmarks Preservation Commission gauntlet in February, when officials assessed the landmark-ability of 95 NYC buildings and historical sites—some of which had been backlogged in the agency's system for five decades. Those still under consideration will receive a final vote by December.

Installed in 1936 on top of the long-since-demolished Queens Pepsi bottling plant, the sign has been dismantled and shifted along the Queens waterfront multiple times since the late 1990s (the current sign is actually a 1994 restoration, as the c. 1930s sign was severely damaged in a storm). In 2013, a 25-story apartment tower on the Queens waterfront was partially recessed to give the sign a respectful amount of breathing room.

The NY Times reports that the sign had been under consideration for landmark status for 28 years leading up to yesterday's approval.

Seven other sites earned landmark status this week, including the Green-Wood Cemetery Chapel, the Van Sicklen House in the Gravesend, and the main sanctuary, parish house and rectory of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church on the Upper West Side.

Describing the Pepsi-Cola sign as less than "traditional" this week, the LPC made the case that they're with it. "Tastes and definitions of landmarks continue to change, as does New York," they said in a statement. "Public perception of the quotidian sights of our city, like signage, can evolve quickly once something that has always been there, suddenly, is not." We see you, Kentile Floors sign.