Construction and Operation
The Pittsburgh Outdoor Advertising Corporation installed the Westinghouse sign in June of 1967 using 3,000 feet (910 m) of neon tubing filled with an argon gas, giving the display its characteristic blue color. The sign was composed of nine repetitions of the familiar 'circle w' logo, each of which was 17.5 feet (5.3 m) in diameter and divided into ten sections – the upper and lower halves of the enclosing circle, the four diagonal strokes of the W, the three dots above the W, and the bar below – meaning that the entire sign comprised ninety individual elements. In later years, an extra element was added to each logo by allowing the top and bottom of the enclosing circle to be independently illuminated. The ninety element configuration increased the number of possible display combinations, but sacrificed the elegance of the original design.
The Wesco Building stood near Three Rivers Stadium, and the sign was one of several large illuminated corporate billboards that became a fixture of Pittsburgh's evening skyline. Among the others were the Alcoa sign atop Mount Washington, and the Clark Bar sign on the D. L. Clark Company Building.
What distinguished the Westinghouse sign was the common perception that there were practically an infinite number of sequences in which the sign's elements could be lit, and that no sequence was ever repeated. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation encouraged this perception. In reality, the cycle of display patterns would repeat every six minutes, employing a subset of 120 lighting combinations created by Westinghouse designers. To heighten interest in the sign, lighting patterns would be changed from time to time by selecting different sequences from the 120 available displays. Westinghouse's own Prodac 50 computer controlled the sign, since it was well-suited to handling repetitive tasks.
The sign was demolished when the Wesco Building was razed in the autumn of 1998 to make way for PNC Park, which succeeded Three Rivers as the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Preservationists intended to save at least one of the 'circle w' units for eventual display at the Senator John Heinz History Center. However, both the physical structure and electrical components were in such a state of decay that nothing was salvageable.
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