The Empire Lights Back

Using the world’s most iconic skyscraper as his canvas, a high-tech LED artist turns New York City’s nightscape into an eye-popping rave.

Photos by Jessica Bal (Header photo courtesy Empire State Realty Trust)

It’s Super Bowl Sunday in America, and the stakes are high. The Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos take the field at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, as hundreds of millions of viewers tune in to watch from barstools and living room couches around the world. Marc Brickman is one of them. A few miles away from the game, across the Hudson, his eyes are glued to the television for something more than fandom, fun, or that appetizing office pool.

This is his time to shine. No, literally.

It happens fast: The ball breaks the plane of the end zone, the referee’s arms rise, and the announcer roars “Touchdown!” That’s Brickman’s signal. He quickly presses down on a button, and now almost every person within at least a twenty-mile radius of New York City on this comfortable February night will know the Seahawks scored a touchdown — because the Empire State Building is flashing blue and white.

Be it postcards, movies, commerc…