“It blew me away,” is something I hear along those lines. I think the average person simply reacts to seeing 13 vintage signs in one place, and finds it an unusual, spectacular visual experience. So we know the neon is liked, but we’ve never surveyed what they like specifically. Len Davidson: The Center has numerous meetings, parties, talks, art, and architecture exhibits in their gallery space, and I am told that in five years, only one group did not want the neon on during their program. Are they so loved because they remind people of their past–of the city they grew up in? Or because of the art? Or both? Nathaniel Popkin: You must hear from people all the time about the pieces at the Center for Architecture. With that possibility looming, Nathaniel Popkin caught up with Davidson for an interview. But where? And who would fund it? Davidson is eager to find a suitor lest he be forced to sell the pieces off one by one. Now, as Davidson and the Center are negotiating a new agreement with the potential to create activities and programming related to the signs, his ultimate hope is to place the entire collection in a single, publicly accessible place. For five years, a set of 13 iconic Philadelphia signs have been displayed at the Center for Architecture. There are some 100 pieces in his collection worthy of display, many of them stored in a warehouse in North Philadelphia.
Editor’s Note: Philadelphia neon expert and collector Len Davidson has been restoring and displaying vintage pieces since 1976, when he owned a roadside bar in Florida.
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