Unisys turned down on Center City signs Posted on August 26th
Unisys Corp. cannot put up its signs on the city’s iconic Two Liberty Place skyscraper, the Zoning Board of Adjustments voted unanimously this morning.
The computer software company said it would now have to reconsider its plans to move its world headquarters and 225 employees into the city.
“We’re disappointed by the decision,” Unisys spokesman James Kerr said.
Reading from a brief statement, zoning board chairman Susan Jaffe said that “we recognize and support” the city’s efforts to attract businesses to Philadelphia.
But, she said, the board has to enforce the zoning code as written.
The zoning code does not permit signs larger than 100 square feet and higher than the bottom of the second floor unless the applicant can prove a hardship. She said Unisys failed to make its case.
Kerr said Unisys had not decided whether to appeal the decision in court.
Unisys has a 10-year lease on the building, starting in January. Kerr said it had delayed beginning nine months of renovations while awaiting the board’s decision. The lease, he said, gives Unisys the right to sublet the space.
Unisys had wanted the signs showing its corporate logo so it could ally its image with “the vibrant urban” atmosphere of Center City,” Lawrence Wieser, Unisys’ vice president of global operations, testified.
Unisys employs about 1,700 people in the region, many at its headquarters in Blue Bell, Montgomery County.
Businesses and residents opposed to the sign were pleased with the zoning board’s ruling.
“This is sending a message that the city of Philadelphia is not for sale,” said a delighted Salvatore Mancini, project director for the Falcone Group, which owns the condominium and restaurant parts of Two Liberty.
Chris Curran, spokesman for Cigna Corp., the major tenant in the building, said the company “was pleased that the zoning board has agreed with a significant majority of the tenants.”
The insurance company has had the right to put its sign on the building, but never did.
The board’s decision came shortly before noon after nearly three hours of testimony on the third day of hearings. The board deliberated about 20 minutes before announcing the vote.
Most of the testimony this morning came from those opposed to the sign.
Alfred R. Borden, principal of the Lighting Practice, a Center City consulting firm, testified that the red Unisys signs would create a lighting “trespass” that had the image and light from the sign bouncing back to Two Liberty off nearby mirrored building surfaces.
On cloudy days, he said, the clouds themselves would act as reflectors, sending a red glow two to four feet into Two Liberty.
“It would be a little pink,” he said.
Richard Oller, president of Madison Park LLC, the company that manages the residential condominium portion of the building, said that the biggest challenge in marketing the building was to overcome its perception as an office building.
“The good news: Everyone knows Two Liberty Place. It’s a focal part of our city,” he said. But that was also the bad news when it came to convincing residents that they wouldn’t be living in an office tower.
“No one would choose to live above the “I” in Unisys,” Oller said. That’s where his condominium.
Others, including Mary Tracy from Scrub, an organization that made its mark fighting offensive billboards, said they feared that a decision for the sign would pave the way for other signs to go up, diminishing, in their opinion, the visual integrity of the skyline and particularly the two Liberty buildings.
Speaking in favor of the sign was Duane Bumb, senior deputy director of the city’s Commerce Department. Bumb said the sign would “send a message that Philadelphia is good for business,” and would help the city attract other businesses.
Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.