What’s old is new again: Iconic Rochester sign gets a ‘glow-up’
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With rain, wind and snow in the forecast, a construction crew works against the clock to install the upper half of a giant letter “K” before the nasty weather moves in.
It’s a final step in the logistically challenging refurbishment of one of Rochester’s iconic landmarks. For 50 years, visitors approaching Mayo Clinic have seen the glowing neon red of the Kahler Grand Hotel sign from the highway. Eleven stories up, it stands out from the Mayo Clinic high rises surrounding it.
“We’ve been talking about replacing the sign for several years, the biggest challenge was access to it,” said Josh Johnson, who is overseeing the project as the Kahler’s director of engineering and facilities.
The sign’s three massive sides can be seen from the north, south and east. One hangs 14 feet off the side of the hotel’s top story. Custom scaffolding was necessary to make the project feasible and safe.
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For days in late October, the old letters — weather beaten and rusted — were carefully lowered down the side of the building, while new ones were hoisted up.
There wasn’t much discussion about changing the font: massive, blocky capital letters that feel current no matter the decade. In fact, most changes to the sign won’t be apparent at all, said Johnson.
“It’s the exact same specs, as far as dimensions go of the letters,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot shinier with newer LED lighting instead of neon. It will just be brighter and look a lot cleaner.”
And it can change color, giving the hotel the option of illuminating it to match holidays, events or other milestones.
A grand hotel re-emerges
One of the old “Ks” is now in the museum’s lobby, which also displays artifacts from the hotel’s 100-year lifespan.
Even though the hotel is old, its commitment to hospitality over the last century hasn’t changed, said Brenda Halverson, director of sales for the Kahler Grand’s Towers, the luxury wing that often hosts celebrities and dignitaries visiting Mayo.
But competition for patrons has, as Rochester experiences a growth spurt, she said. The city added hundreds of new hotel rooms in the last decade to keep up with Mayo’s expansion plans.
The Kahler’s getting a top-to-bottom renovation inside too — redecorated rooms with the lobby, restaurant and ballrooms getting the same treatment.
“It’s really coming back to this old grand hotel that it always has been — in my mind anyway. I love it,” Halverson said.
Refurbishing the sign is very much a part of that plan, said Halverson. She brought the idea to management after seeing some locals comment on Facebook.
“Somebody had taken a photo of the sign with a light burned out and asked ‘When are they going to restore this’,” she said.
Halverson said she’s happy they didn’t make huge changes to the sign’s design because visitors find comfort in consistency.
“We see people coming back that have tried new things, and they just like the homey feel that we have. So that’s always a good thing,” she said. “It feels warmer here and it is warmer here. We’ll take that as a compliment.”
Back on the roof, Johnson said that the official lighting will happen sometime this month. As a Rochester native, he said getting the sign right was important to him.
“For people like myself and my friends, family who have lived their whole lives, the skyline just wouldn’t look the same without the Kaler sign lit up downtown,” he said.
