A New York Times piece written today by David Dunlap underscored the cultural significance of TF Cornerstone‘s new Long Island City apartment structure.  The 25-story building at 4610 Center Boulevard is being built on the former site of the PepsiCo bottling plant, which closed its doors in 1999.  When Pepsi sold its 21 acres to the Elghanayan brothers in 2001, the company kept a 60-by-200 foot parcel to permanently house the ruby-red Depression era landmark.

To highlight the prominent East River beacon, designers from Arquitectonica will recess the bottom eight floors of the building, curving its corners to create a shadow effect for the letters.

As per the article:

“I didn’t want the sharp corners of a rectangle competing with the letters,” Mr. Fort-Brescia continued. “I chose to curve the corners so the building seems to fade away.” That the curves are also evocative of the streamlined Art Deco period in which the sign was erected is an added benefit, he said. But the design is not meant as historical allusion.

“This is all my impulse,” Mr. Fort-Brescia said, when asked if PepsiCo had requested or demanded such aesthetic deference. Besides, the sign will probably serve the developers’ interests equally well, since it confers special bragging rights on tenants.

“They’ll want to say, ‘I live behind the Pepsi sign,’” predicted Pablo Fernandez, TF Cornerstone’s no-nonsense job site superintendent. “People are funny that way.”

The full article can be found here.