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Iconic Designs Within Reach
New York is often summoned to hearts and minds with familiar icons. Tourist shops are full of miniature Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn bridge and Empire State Building replicas—the same symbols that appear so often in movies and TV. But our much-loved icons are part of a modern city of over eight million people, and for every one of them, there's a buck to be made. So what happens when familiar symbols meet with publicists' agendas?

You may know that the Empire State Building light pattern changes with holidays and special occasions. But you may not know that (mostly not-for-profit) event planners may be the ones choosing the patterns and hues. For example, if you saw the building's lights glowing purple, pink and white as the sun went down on April 25th, you caught the promotion for pop star Mariah Carey's newest album, E=MC2.

Iconic nightclub CBGB, often called the birthplace of punk, may be gone, but the rock venue's recent replacement, menswear boutique John Varvatos, has attempted to keep some of its history from being forgotten. The store's interior still looks somewhat like the former club, with sections of the sticker-covered walls still preserved behind glass in what designer (and rock lover) Varvatos calls "respectful homage." Somewhat ironically, the club also lives on in a memorabilia store on St. Mark's Place.

The familiar "We Are Happy to Serve You" paper coffee cup, introduced in 1963, has been immortalized in ceramic by designer Graham Hill of the environmentally-minded design collective Exceptionlab. The cups can be found at the The Museum of Modern Art Store and better gift boutiques for about three times what a cuppa costs today.