The lightclock cometh: LIC’s Murano Condo fires up the technicolor

I think it is more diffused in real life. The camera seems to be processing the light more densely than it’s probably emanating.

I saw it coming from Greenpoint. It was kinda lame. It was a nice concept but I think it was poorly executed. I haven’t seen it at night however. One does wonder….who will pay extra to be next to it.

Great addition to the neighborhood. But yeah, no one will live underneath it, except Kramer from ‘Seinfeld.’

I live across the street and it lights up my bedroom all night. It must be dimmed…

9, attacking NIMBY people (or “you people,” as you put it) has become a convenient way for inconsiderate developers and other assholes to ignore reasonable complaints and do whatever they want.

Tell me, where besides Times Square would someone living in NYC expect to have glaring lights shining in their windows from a neighboring structure? If garish green light were beaming into my bedroom window from across the street, I wouldn’t be too happy about it either.

Uhh first of all, #11, I have lived in New York City my entire life, in Astoria my entire life. From the moment I was born, till now. So to assume that I came from somewhere else or from Manhattan, is ridiculous.

New York City comprises of 5 boroughs, every borough is urbanized and if you don’t know that, if you just believe Manhattan is the city, then you should leave now, its all New York City. Long Island City wasn’t some separate city and world. And if you believe that urbanization and development won’t happen because the neighborhood used to be nice and quiet, then you wrong. Manhattan was nice and quiet in some parts 100 years ago too. Guess what, times change, things grow. You are in a neighborhood right against the river, near to the water. What did you expect? Once you saw Jersey City and Brooklyn growing, you should have though with common sense that, oh maybe Queens would grow also.

As for number 9, Nimby is a perfect name to call those against any development. Like I said, there are plenty of suburbs and other quiet areas if you feel the area you live in is getting too big for you to handle. If you think Times Square is bad, god forbid you lived somewhere like Hong Kong where practically every building is neon. There are lights all over the city, I’m surprised you don’t complain about the street lights being too bright, or do you?

I dont see how this light can affect anyone. The Lighing element must be 10 stories up and there is no other building in the vicinity that is anywhere near that height, so I’m confused how this can be shining in anyones bedroom window at night unless your house levitates. Care to explain #8?

What is luxury housing? I live in one of the new buildings, and it is not luxury. This is just market rate housing. The only one shoveling the luxury line is brokers. You are foolish if you believe it.

I live a half a block away and have 2 story windows in my bedroom and living room. I enjoy having a view of queens and enjoy the sunrise in the morning. These lights glare into my bedroom all night, changing colors every 5 seconds. The entire room is lit up. I’m not a complainer, but this is ridiculous. I know, I know, I should get thick curtains. All of a sudden my beautiful view will be blocked by thick curtains that don’t let any light in. And for what, so this building can have a stupid light on it? Put yourself in the same situation, it sucks…

I empathize with you #18 as well. It’s hard when our environment around us changes not for the better and there’s nothing we can do about it.

I was actually the first one in contract here. I’m an architect and I can say that out of a lot of the new developments in the outer boroughs, there’s quality construction here, which is one of the things I really looked for. As for the design, I won’t comment being that I’m a designer, but I will say, love it or hate it, its something different and I think it reflects the creativity of LIC.

Now the light clock, I haven’t been back to the building since it’s been on and I’m not sure how offensive it really is. If it’s bad, I doubt the condo board will keep it on. If it’s going to bother any one, it’ll probably bother the building’s own inhabitants the most. The lobby and the moat I like though for sure.

#22, you are either lying about being an architect or not a very good one if you think the murano is good construction. Ask any human being living on 51st ave for the last two years if they think that building is good construction. I’m not an architect, but after living in LIC I’ve witnessed many new buildings get built. The murano was held up by little wooden stilts while it was being constructed and we all laughed and laughed about how shoddily it was being built. They also didn’t properly underpin and damaged some neighbor’s building. It was a mess. SEriously, I have nothing against the murano. I just watched it’s entire construction from hole in the ground to where it is now, and I strongly caution that it is not the most soundly constructed building. not to mention they were one of the buildings to pour their foundation in the winter. Which will make it weak. It’ll probably be the first building to go down if we ever have our predicted cat 5 hurricanes in the future. These are not seasoned developers.

24: I was commenting on the quality of the finishes as I was not around for the very early stages of construction, so I can’t really respond to the things you mentioned and I won’t defend the building in those regards. No, I’m not a bad architect, but perhaps I should have worded my statement more specifically. I would not be so quick to attack someone’s career based on a harmless statement. However, from what was described in the offering plan and from what I saw when I was there, I don’t know what you possibly saw as “wood stilts,” scaffolding, temporary bracing?

Also, a more general comment, the moat actually is working. I saw them test it but they turned it off to resume construction.

I’ve looked up the information through city records. You have your information a little mixed up. The complaint was not faulty underpinning but that they were underpinning without a proper permit. When inspectors arrived, they didn’t see anything wrong and the issue was resolved. Complaints about damaging an adjacent building was more in the nature of falling debris than anything. All complaints were resolved. While these aren’t ideal work conditions, it definitely isn’t anything that would necessarily make it a shoddily built building and in a general note, sadly not uncommon in nyc construction.

By the way, the Murano lights are NOT neon. They are energy sucking LEDs which consume much more power for the amount of light, and burn out much more quickly. They are by no means “green”.

31, Here’s a chart that compares standard commercially available LED, experimental LEDs that are not on the market, and Neon. Hopefully the columns will remain in tact. The numbers are lumens per watt. The only meaningful way to compare consumption is to take into account the amount of light produced. This chart only shows the light directly in front. Note that neon projects light in all directions and LED does not.

[Std LED] [Exp LED] [Neon]
Red 38 50 30
Amber 40 40 91
Yellow 32 40 76
Green 20 70 114
Blue/Green 18 55 86
Blue 9 23 38
White 20 70 90

Here’s a link from the US Department of Energy:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/efficacy.html
(Note that Linear fluorescent figures are comparable to neon)

Also here’s an interesting video (admittedly by a neon advocate) where white neon is directly tested against the three leading commercial LED sign products:
http://vimeo.com/5225339

And another quote from a 2007 DOE article:
“”Performance and efficiency claims made by [LED] product vendors often greatly exceed known start-of-the-art performance levels.”

What are these morons thinking….a bathtub just waiting for a major lawsuit…talk about UNSEXY what if you like taking a bath together with the opposite sex??????

I would like to see a 5 foot tall woman climb in and out of that soaking wet without a major accident

Dumb and Dumber

http://www.condo-living-west.com/nyblog/2009/11/introducing-murano-long-island-city.html

I have to agree about the bright lights lighting up the room throughout the night. I live in one of the Avalon buildings with my bedroom facing east and I can see the lights from this building all night (through my blinds). It was really inconsiderate of the owners/builders to include this in their design and I would imagine it not only effects me, but residents of the building as well as residents of powerhouse – it’s entirely evident that this light drenches the east facing apartments there as well.

Hi, I’ve just put an offer on one of the units facing the river (two floors above the light clock). Does anyone have a sense of how the new zoning along the waterfront will effect the view? Thanks.

A haiku for the big stupid light:

In a word, tasteless.
In two words: ultra tacky.
Jesus, pull the plug.