Folding the Umbrella

By Carl Glassman
POSTED September 1, 2007

There were few kind words for the 16-foot-high, 5,300-pound Travelers Insurance umbrella when it went up in front of the company’s headquarters 10 years ago (now the Citigroup building) at 388 Greenwich St. in Tribeca. One Community Board 1 member jokingly referred to the public space where it would reside as “Mary Poppins Plaza.” And employees in the building mocked it the most. “I’d like to see some nice wind come by and take it for a ride,” said one.

But as passersby saw the big red icon sliced into pieces one Saturday last month— preparation for a crane to swing it onto a waiting flatbed truck—sentiments seemed to have changed.

“It’s stupid to take it away,” said Feisal Nanji, who was visiting a friend in the neighborhood. “It’s part of Tribeca.”

“I’m sad to see it go,” said a Citigroup worker, who did not want to be identified, as she exited the building that morning. “Where am I going to tell the cabs to go?”

“It had a nice whimsy,” said Eli Hausknecht, who lives just above Canal Street. “I got used to it.”

Citigroup sold off Travelers Insurance in 2004 but retained rights to the umbrella logo until selling it for an undisclosed sum in May to the Hartford, Conn.-based Travelers Companies.

Citigroup had already shed the neon umbrella on the north face of its tower before workers took a buzz saw to the steel symbol and carried it off in three sections. It will go in front of the Travelers building in Hartford.

“We’re going to shine it up, weld it together and stick it in the ground,” said Tony Flores of Saxton Sign Company as he waited to truck the pieces away. Flores said his company has already installed two 25-foot-tall, red LED-lit umbrellas on two sides of the insurer’s building.

“It really sticks out like a sore thumb,” he said.

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