Design

Remembering Pittsburgh's Most Mesmerizing Sign

In a city filled with illuminated signs, Westinghouse's light show was the one to watch for 30 years. Nostalgia for it remains.
Richard Huppertz/Wikimedia Commons

Long before the lights from Pittsburgh's PNC Park began illuminating the North Shore every summer, a local corporation gave the city an art show every night on the same grounds.

The Westinghouse Electric Supply Company (a subsidiary of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, or Wesco), based in Pittsburgh, moved into a warehouse facing the Allegheny River in 1948. On its roof, a giant orange and blue sign spelled out the the company's tag line, "You can be sure … if it’s Westinghouse."