The Weather Star
Perched on the roof is the Weather Star, a 150-foot (46 m) tower of lights topped with a star which was built by Artkraft Strauss. The star was green if the following day's weather forecast was fair, orange for cloudy, flashing orange for rain and flashing white for snow. The direction the lights on the tower moved depended on whether the temperatures were expected to rise or fall; absence of movement meant no change. The Weather Star is still operable, but it's no longer used for meteorological forecasting purposes. At the base of the tower is a four-sided electronic digital board that has always displayed the current time and temperature.
Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York built the structure in 1950 for its corporate headquarters. The architect Shreve, Lamb and Harmon also designed the Empire State Building. It left the building after being acquired by AXA. Mutual Insurance had been renamed MONY Life Insurance Company in 1998. The building was completely renovated in 2007.
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Famous quotes containing the words weather and/or star:
“And there could I marvel my birthday
Away but the weather turned around. And the true
Joy of the long dead child sang burning
In the sun.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“A brush had left a crooked stroke
Of what was either cloud or smoke
From north to south across the blue;
A piercing little star was through.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)