You might wonder about something but not know who to ask, or decide it's not worth your time to ask. That's where OKI Wanna Know comes in — we ask the questions others don't bother with. This week, we stare into the lights with WVXU's Bill Rinehart.
Amy Parrott of Villa Hills, Kentucky, says she drives by the Duke Energy Center and sees the Cincinnati sign on the western wall all lit up, with changing colors. She wonders who decides which color or colors the sign will be on any given night.
The director of communications for the city of Cincinnati, Mollie Lair, says the convention center manager and the city put their heads together to decide which lights to go with. She says requests come from the mayor, the members of Council, and from the public at large.
Parrot says she asked her question because she works at Procter & Gamble and learned the towers were bathed in green one May as the company recognized Mental Health Month.
So, we asked P&G the same question: Who decides what colors shine on the towers?
A spokesman gave us this statement: "The selection of lighting themes is coordinated to align with community initiatives and in harmony with other Downtown landmarks, reflecting our commitment to unity and shared celebration."
In other words: the lights are a way to support local events, causes, and holidays.
Fifth Third Bank has a similar policy for its tower at Fountain Square; however, a spokesperson says green on that tower might represent the release of the quarterly earnings report.
Alice Skirtz of Clifton Heights also asked about another lit-up building. She pointed out that Christ Hospital usually lights its steeple in white, but recently she's seen it bright red.
Christ Hospital spokesperson Jenny Collopy says they used to have to buy thousand-dollar lenses to change the color projection, and send people to the roof to swap them out. That's changed.
"We have this wonderful LED system that with a click of a button we're able to change it to about 15 different colors."
Collopy says Christ Hospital has drawn up a strategy to look ahead in the year and plan which colors to go with.
"Does it align with the mission of the Christ Hospital, and what is the intentionality of it, and how does it benefit our community?" she says. "As you can imagine, we'd want to make sure that if we'd want to create awareness around different health topics, that's going to be a top priority for ours."
Collopy says they're also working on a way to let people know what the colors are for.
There are a lot of local buildings that are illuminated with colors. To be fair, we didn't ask about every one, and we didn't get a response from everyone we asked.
Hamilton County has a couple of Downtown buildings that qualify. Commission President Denise Driehaus says staff also draws up a list for the year. Commissioners have the final say, but they do take requests.
"This is meant to be fun. It's interesting," she says. "It was right during COVID. It was, I think, May of 2021, we were going to be more energy-efficient with our lights, and at that time someone said 'Well you know, if we're going to do that work anyway, why don't we do lights that we can manage and do these different colors?' "
Driehaus says the buildings can be lit for a monthly or weekly awareness-type event, or for a particular day. She says they also look at what other places are doing and sometimes follow suit.
FC Cincinnati is on board in the West End. The club changes the lights and patterns on TQL Stadium for some community events, and to celebrate specific events there. And if the city is going to get some national exposure.
A statement from the club says they will evaluate requests if they match club values and priorities. Club leadership, including stadium operations and marketing, make the decision.
Nearby, Music Hall has been completely lit up for Lumenocity and more recently BLINK. Thea Tjepkema says those lights were temporary. She's with the Friends of Music Hall, and says they don't change the light colors because it would disrupt the historic appearance of the building.
"And also you know that cherry red brick on the front? It can be kind of garish to put colors on it."
The 30-foot wide Rose Window does have lights inside, and she says those change based on who's performing.
"A lot of the times it matches with their season brochure, season programming colors that match with the theme of the concerts, or the opera, or the ballet, or the May Festival."
At least one of Covington's hotels has a changeable lighting scheme. The Radisson next to the interstate once used colors to give the weather forecast, but now, it's either random, or whatever the night manager chooses.
Dennis Madden asked about the lights in the Twin Towers Retirement Center in College Hill. He wants to know if there's any history or message. Vice President of Marketing and Communications Anjie Britton says she couldn't find any kind of history to the lights. But, much like other places, they pick the lights, and sometimes they coincide with what's going on in the area or the country, and sometimes, lights are just lights.
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