New York City has the Empire State Building, Paris the Eiffel Tower, and Chicago the Sears Tower. Hartford’s landmark, the Aetna sign, is a bit more diminutive, but it still inspires the same sense of loyalty and familiarity.
It’s almost as if it knows our mood. In a way, it does. If you’ve wondered about what triggers a change in the sign’s color, you’ll be happy to know it’s more than whim.
There are 12 Aetna-approved colors — ranging from teal to pink to orange and many in between — that change weekly but seasonal or special events merit a color change. Computers change the sign’s colors depending on the holiday, or for special occasions. If the UConn Huskies win a championship, blue and white it will be! The letters are illuminated using LED lights inside each 12-foot tall letter. The landmark sign can be see as far away as West Hartford, and certainly is a beacon for drivers on I-84.
It’s just another way that Aetna distinguishes itself in the capital city.
Completed in 1930, the Aetna building was for year the largest colonial-style building in the world and the largest office building in Connecticut. The Aetna building is 1.8 million square feet and the workplace for about 5,000 employees.
The relatively new sign – this latest went up in 2012 — is a rendition of the Aetna logo designed by international branding company Siegel +Gale. It is considerably larger than the old one and it took some structural work to secure it to the roof of the Aetna building. The sign is mounted on a 25-foot-long steel structure that has rollers. When it needs maintenance, the maintenance team pulls it in by hand, performs the maintenance and pushes it back out.
The glowing Aetna sign brightens up long New England winter evenings. We all have our favorites.
Date: January 26, 2015