Seventy-two years old and 120 feet long, Queen's Pepsi Cola sign has long been a key landmark. The sign, designed by the Artkraft Strauss Bottling Company, had been displayed over the Hunter's Point Bottling plant until 1999, when the plant closed.
Bright red and shouting the city's apparent passion for Pepsi-Cola, the sign has generated unrest over the past few years. In December 2008, it was moved upstream to provide a better view for The View, a waterfront condo complex. While the sign was designed so that residents could see around and through it, developers believed the sign's presence would elicit a negative reaction from residents. So, the sign was moved upriver to a 24-story, 300-unit building, where only bedrooms have a view of the sign while living rooms have views of Manhattan.
In any location, the original Pepsi Cola sign is a significant landmark to New Yorkers living in Queens (even so for those in Manhattan, although their view of the sign reads "aloC ispeP").
But any near or far view represents the early and recent American love for the bubbly and tasty soft drink Pepsi – or at least a nostalgia for the era in which it was developed.
