At the last Catellus it was made clear that the only plan is to "fix it cosmetically when that part of RMMA is being built out" and have the residents continue to pay $10,000/year to hang up the Noel sign.

Ouch. For that money maybe we can push for the NOEL to be built-in permanently when they really get to work on the tower. Not lit all year of course, but hopefully lightable by the flipping of a switch instead of the yearly install/uninstall process that happens currently. (But should they use peachy or LED lights?)

Catellus stated last night at the PIAC that restoration on the tower will begin sometime mid-2010. They plan to restore it to its original state - which actually means removing the 'skin' you currently see that was added at a later time.

Apparently the original tower was two different shades of blue.

I have a picture of it.

2nd try for attachment

i'll put it in the photo section.

You know, if the plan is to just "fix it cosmetically" but to not really do anything with it, I'd rather they just tear it down. I can't help comparing this to the hangar area. That hangar looks great and is very useful to the community. So we keep a link to the airport history of the place but in a practical way. It's subjective of course, but to me the tower's just not very attractive. If it were in some way usable I'd be able to look past it's unattractiveness, but it sounds like it's not going to be.

I had no idea we were paying that much money to hang the Noel sign.

Here's a direct img tag into the photo section:

Since there are plans for an apartment building near or around the tower, and the tower was originally connected to the terminal, I think it would cool if they connected the apartment building to the tower. Supposedly the tower is too small for a martini bar, but it would make an awesome reading room or pool (billiards not swimming) room or party room or movie screening room amenity for the apartment building.
Yes, this would mean that only apartment residents could use it, but I would prefer that it gets used in some way. In exchange the apartment complex could then pick up the cost of the NOEL sign.

Mike

In the approx. ten year planning process for Mueller, there were some surrounding neighbors and others involved in the process that worked hard to ensure the tower would be preserved.

I think it is pretty cool that is it still there and it being restored - I am excited to see what the final use ends up being.