A Morgan Stanley sunrise, a Lehman Brothers moon.(electronic sign on New York City office tower)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 28-JAN-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

When Morgan Stanley sold Lehman Brothers its new glass tower at 745 Seventh Avenue, just north of Times Square, last fall, there wasn't much for the new owner to do except switch the name above the door. What works for one mega financial firm pretty much works for another. That principle applies even to the building's most conspicuous feature, a two-and-a-half-story-high electronic sign. The Morgan Stanley sign, which is now the Lehman Brothers sign, is a generation ahead of such high-voltage Times Square showpieces as the cylindrical Nasdaq sign on the Conde Nast Building, the ABC news ticker and television screen at 1500 Broadway, and the series of tall screens jutting out from the new Reuters Building.

The Lehman Brothers sign doesn't stick out or cover up the building....

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