NEW York’s longest-running show isn’t “The Phantom of the Opera.” It’s the ever-changing halo of lights at the top of the Empire State Building.
When the Yankees or Mets win big, the tower is crowned in blue or orange, and at Christmas, the building is given a
glowing red, green and white crown.
A crown that someone has to change (and no, there’s no safety harness.)
Trust us: The cold at street level this winter is tropical compared to the brutal weather atop the Empire State Building.
Roughly once a week, a team of electricians spends hours creeping along the edges of the New York landmark, braving gale-force winds.
The light bays of the building sit on two narrow ledges, one on the 72nd floor and another on the 81st. And it’s rough going.
“Sometimes we have to hold on because of the wind,” says 56-year-old Jake Nouel, the building’s chief electrician. He’s been changing the gels –
circles of colored plastic that are hand-screwed into the hundreds of floodlights – for 29 years.
“Sometimes we have to hold on to each other,” he says with a laugh.
On a recent frigid February morning, he and his crew changed the lights from white to blue-green-blue to commemorate something called Corporate Philanthropy Day.
Anyone can submit a proposal to have the colors changed – but officials from the building’s public relations office make the final decision.
As for the most complicated lighting design ever? That would be last summer, when the building celebrated the Olympics by featuring the colors of four different countries on each side, every day for the duration of the 16-day games. Some said the tower looked like a giant Rubik’s Cube. Still, at least it wasn’t cold out.
“I like it out here during the summer,” says Nouel, peering over the ledge at the street 72 stories below. To reach Nouel’s workspace, you have to climb out the windows of the Empire State Building, where there’s an eye-level view of the top of the Chrysler Building.
Changing the gels is labor intensive, while Nouel and his crew battle ice, wind – and even the occasional hawk attack.
“Last year we saw 23 hawks up here in one day,” says Bernie Von Haack, a longtime vet on the building’s electrical staff. Every once in a while, the birds dive-bomb the workers, but no one has ever been hit – yet.
The team also has to regularly negotiate a maze of scaffolding ropes and cables, left by contractors tasked with waterproofing the outside of the building.
“The cold, the wind, no matter what – we’re out here,” says Nouel.
The lights have been bolted to the ledges since 1977. They’ve ranged from basic white to the more patriotic red, white and blue on the anniversary of 9/11. They were even doused entirely for 15 minutes, when “King Kong” star Fay Wray died in 2004.
They’re built to withstand harsh weather, wear and tear. In fact, the only time they’ve been smashed was in 2004, when a suicide jumper leapt to his death from the 86th-floor observation deck. And while there has been talk over the years of changing the lighting system to a more economical (and far less dangerous) LED system, “there are no plans currently,” according to a spokeswoman for the landmark building.
As the popularity of the colored lights has soared, so have its demands.
“It used to be only a few times a year we would change the colors,” says Nouel, “Now it’s more than 130.”