Now that’s a night light.
Renters at the new Sven tower in Long Island City will have the ability to control what they see when they peer out on Manhattan at night thanks to an app that lets them change the color of the skyline with the touch of a button.
According to the New York Post, potential residents at the Durst Organization property are being wooed with a membership to Spireworks, a mobile app that lets users control the glow atop iconic, Durst-owned New York skyscrapers including the so-called H&M building at 151 West 42nd Street, One Bryant Park in Midtown and One World Trade Center Downtown.
They’ll even have the ability to make beautiful Long Island City more beautiful — controlling the lighting atop their own 71-story Northern Boulevard building to put on a show for those in Manhattan who occasionally sneak a peek across the East River.
The app works by allowing up to five users two minutes to change the colors of the buildings’ tops using a carousel of templates, giving them the chance to outdo each other or signal back in forth in some kind of a high-tech flashlight game.
Access to the app had previously been by invitation only and was famously used by architect Bjark Ingels, who the Post says wowed guests by changing the colors of buildings’ spires during parties.
Right now, the app has more than 30,000 users, and with Sven beginning to lease its nearly 1,000 studio to three-bedroom apartments, that number could increase by up 3,000. Still, Spireworks honchos say the wait to flip the switch usually lasts no more than 10 minutes, according the the paper.
Users will not able to go on the app during times when the lights atop the buildings are shined for such events as Breast Cancer Awareness month in October.
The Empire State Building is not on the list of iconic building tops controlled by the app, although it has been in the past.