LeBron James banner proposal gets thumbs-up from Cleveland design review committee

Nike Lebron Wall 09.16.14.jpg

A Cleveland design review committee gave this banner proposal a thumbs-up on Thursday. That recommendation now heads to the Cleveland City Planning Commission, which meets Friday morning.

(Cleveland City Planning Commission)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A city design review committee that is focused on downtown Cleveland and the Flats gave a unanimous OK on Thursday to plans for a 10-story LeBron James banner on Ontario Street.

Committee members had few concerns about the wall display, which is being sponsored by Nike Inc. At 110 feet by 200 feet, the proposed banner is similar to other Nike-James images that adorned the wall of the Landmark Office Towers from 2005-10.

David Sternberg of Gigantic Media, a Chagrin Falls company working on the project, said Nike and building owner Sherwin-Williams Co. hope to erect the banner before the Cleveland Cavaliers' home opener in October.

The city's design review committee approved the Sherwin-Williams Co. and Gigantic Media's new 10-story banner of LeBron James on the side of the Landmark Office Towers. The proposal now goes to the city's planning commission, which is scheduled to vote Friday.

"I think it was genius to put Cleveland on his back," committee member Jeffrey Bogart said of the new design, in which James faces away from passersby and sports a jersey bearing the city's name, instead of his own. "To have Cleveland -- it's about Cleveland, it's not about one person."

"Well, it is about one person," Craig Brown, another committee member, responded.

Brown said he had no aesthetic concerns about the banner, but he wished the design celebrated Cleveland more.

The proposal now heads to the Cleveland City Planning Commission, which is scheduled to vote Friday.

A Sherwin-Williams spokesman declined to comment on the banner. The publicly traded company, which maintains its headquarters at the Landmark Office Towers, has never disclosed financial terms of its wall-display deals.

Since 2010, when James left the Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat, Sherwin-Williams has posted images of Cleveland on that wall. The current banner, designed by local artist George Vlosich III, depicts buildings, bridges and other city landmarks in bold colors.

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