For me, the disappointment comes not from the loss of a bit of overtly-visible corporate branding, but at the loss of a visually nice lighting design element on our newest and most prominent tower. I would have preferred an unbranded approach, but what we saw in the renders was almost understated compared to a lot of other corporate signage.
I’m not some height or light fetish dude either - but I do appreciate what a well-lit skyline does for nighttime atmosphere in a big city. No doubt my living through APAC over the past 20 years has influenced my tastes; Boston is dark and this reads as a bit uninviting.
That highly touched-up photo of Hong Kong is not what the city looks like in real life, even when they do the light show, which is NOT every night at 8:00.
Shawn, you put this very eloquently, and my sentiment is almost identical to what you nicely express in your first two paragraphs.
Your last I must take exception to. Below are entirely undoctored photos from my own phone (obviously, aperture setting will affect apparent brightness, but I was not paying attention to that).
And, yes, the HK Symphony of Lights is now
every night and has been expanded substantially in 2017 and 2018 (see
here).
Having just been there, I would say the photo upthread does not exaggerate the effect much. HK can be gaudy to some, though many whom I've talked to who've been there have found it beautiful; regardless of one's stance, it is bright AF.
Sorry that some probably view this as a thread derail, but my point is about aesthetic discussion/critique in this thread. This is just about providing a point of calibration about where Boston falls on this luminosity spectrum - which is to say, at the darkest end. My point is that the FS tree logo, relatively speaking, is tasteful and unobtrusive, though I personally don't care much whether it gets put there or not.
