Five letters: each one 20 1/2 feet tall.
Together they spell TRUMP.
The move to rip the Trump name off the side of Chicago’s Trump Tower has picked up speed recently.
“I understand the climate and the pressure to think about taking it down. It was definitely a controversial project, even when we were trying to get it approved to be installed,” says Justin Stuebs.
He oversees design, engineering, manufacturing and installation for Poblocki Sign Company of Milwaukee, which has an office and associates in Chicago.
The company put the sign up seven years ago. Though legal, it created a stir because the city was at that point trying to minimize signage along the riverfront.
“Given the location of it, being on the river, it poses a lot of engineering challenges, just supporting something of that size. It’s almost like a mini-building on the side of a building,” Stuebs said.
Stuebs shares a story that Chuck Amundsen, the now-retired sales consultant on the project, used to tell. Future president Donald Trump himself called one day after the sign was up. Amundsen assumed Trump would have some kind of complaint or reservation.
Instead, Trump reportedly told his colleague: “Chuck, you know, you were right. This looks amazing.”
Stuebs says the Poblocki Sign Company looked at it as a once-in-a-lifetime project. It has led to other big projects, like repositioning the decades-old Chicago Tribune sign on the repurposed Tribune Tower.
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