{"id":204750,"date":"2026-04-21T14:51:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204750\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:51:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:51:44","slug":"iconic-ge-sign-in-schenectady-coming-down-for-renovations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204750\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic GE sign in Schenectady coming down for renovations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The large GE sign over the company’s main plant in Schenectady is coming down to be refurbished, GE\u00a0Vernova said in a statement. It will return to the top of Building 37 later this spring. (John Carl D’Annibale \/ Times Union)<\/p>\n

John Carl D’Annibale\/Times Union\"Entrance<\/p>\n

Entrance to the General Electric campus off Erie Boulevard is seen on\u00a0Dec. 16, 2014, in Schenectady. GE Vernova is refurbishing the iconic GE sign and will return it to the top of Building 37 later this spring.\u00a0 (John Carl D’Annibale \/ Times Union)<\/p>\n

John Carl D’Annibale<\/p>\n

SCHENECTADY \u2014 The iconic GE sign, which has illuminated downtown Schenectady through the Great Depression, World War II and decades of invention, cutting-edge research and manufacturing, is coming down for renovations, the company announced Monday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After the nearly 100-year-old sign is taken down and refurbished, it will be reinstalled on top of Building 37 \u2014 where it has always stood \u2014 later this spring, according to GE\u00a0Vernova, the General Electric Co. spinoff that calls the historic GE campus in Schenectady home.<\/p>\n

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The company is \u201cmodernizing its internal systems to ensure it continues shining \u2014 proudly and reliably \u2014 for decades to come,\u201d the company said in a news release, adding that when the sign returns, its \u201cappearance, design, and character will remain entirely the same\u201d as it has been for 100 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sign has long symbolized innovation and progress in Schenectady,\u201d\u00a0Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova\u2019s wind business, said in a statement. \u201cAs we prepare it for its next century, we\u2019re proud to invest in preserving this landmark while continuing to move forward\u00a0\u2014 leading a new era of energy in the Capital Region, across the country and around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abate has been with GE since 1990, having senior leadership roles in Schenectady with GE Energy. He led the company\u2019s global research center in\u00a0Niskayuna before taking over GE Vernova\u2019s wind business in 2023.<\/p>\n

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GE Vernova became an independent, publicly traded company in 2024 after spinning off from GE, which also spun out its health care division into what is now GE Healthcare. The legacy GE now focuses on aviation and is known as GE Aerospace.<\/p>\n

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GE was formed in 1892 in Schenectady, although the company moved its headquarters out of the city generations ago\u00a0\u2014 first to\u00a0New York City, then Connecticut, and now Boston. GE\u00a0Vernova\u2019s headquarters is in Cambridge, Mass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the Schenectady campus has long been a home to research and manufacturing for GE and its various divisions over the years. Several thousand people work between the Schenectady campus and the\u00a0Niskayuna research campus. GE Vernova actually has a second research center that it is still in the process of building on Balltown Road, nearly next to the Niskayuna campus, where the three GE spinoffs do both corporate and government-funded research.<\/p>\n

The sign is 167 feet long and has 10-foot-tall letters made of steel. It was erected on Building 37 in May 1926, featuring 1,399 lights, and was a technological marvel at the time. Since then, it has been welcoming visitors to the city and welcoming home commuters at the end of the workday.<\/p>\n

In 1950, GE began changing the colors on the sign to red and green during the Christmas holiday season and for the Schenectady Holiday Parade. Last holiday season, however, GE\u00a0Vernova did not use the holiday lights<\/a> as it got ready to refurbish the sign this spring.<\/p>\n

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GE Vernova has announced nearly $200 million in investments in its operations in\u00a0Schenectady and\u00a0Niskayuna over the past several years, leading to dozens of new jobs being created as the world seeks to add more electricity to the electric grid to power next-generation computer chip technologies as well as AI data centers. Much of that power has to come from renewable energy sources that GE is investing in as well.<\/p>\n

There are currently more than 100 job openings in Schenectady County with GE Vernova, including 68 at the Schenectady campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank GE\u00a0Vernova for preserving this sign, which is a powerful symbol for the company and for Schenectady,\u201d said Ray\u00a0Gillen, chair of the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority, which has worked with GE Vernova on repeated investments and job creation in the county over the decades. \u201cWe also welcome and appreciate GE\u00a0Vernova\u2019s continued investment in both the Schenectady and Niskayuna sites as the company meets the growing demand for electricity around the world.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The large GE sign over the company’s main plant in Schenectady is coming down to be refurbished, GE\u00a0Vernova…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[288,844,610,9,11,10,49,51,50,8147],"class_list":{"0":"post-204750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-latestnews","10":"tag-local","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news","17":"tag-skco"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}