If you missed the 10 newspaper stories this month, you should know Baltimore has a new restaurant. One with a big new sign.
People either hate or love the Hard Rock Cafe's neon guitar atop the Power Plant at the Inner Harbor. The 68-foot guitar joins the likes of the Domino Sugars sign and the Bromo-Seltzer Tower as funky fixtures of Baltimore's skyline. "I Glow, Therefore I Am" has become the city's official motto.
So, maybe everyone should have a neon sign. If the Hard Rock gets to hang a guitar on our horizon, the Peabody Institute should be able to post a neon cello or oboe.
"Seriously, a neon violin would be very nice," says Peabody director Robert Sirota. "I was thinking originally about a cowgirl kicking up her feet -- that Las Vegas strip feel. But we had to settle for a little banner that says 'Peabody.' "
Around town, other institutions are also screaming for artless signage:
City Pier: For the Fells Point headquarters of NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street," a 55-foot-tall chalk outline of a homicide victim.
Leakin Park: A neon "NO DUMPING" sign befits our largest unregistered graveyard.
City Hall: A "WYNDHAM HOTELS" sign -- given the Schmoke administration's support for a plan to build a convention center hotel a day's drive or so from the center itself.
The Block: No more trouble finding Baltimore's quaint cove of exotic dancers. Just follow the 65-foot "$20/$40/$60 Cocktail" sign.
Alex. Brown: A huge green "$" to mark the recent sale of the Baltimore institution to Bankers Trust New York.
City Life Museums: Blinking "VACANCY" signs on its many shuttered locations.
Little Italy: Plans did call for a "Valet Parking" sign rivaling the Domino Sugars sign. But then planners remembered Little Italy already had such a sign. Instead, how about a 50-foot, wiggling calamari?
Pub Date: 7/08/97
