Peace, out.
A Manhattan designer can’t hang an illuminated peace sign in the window of her Upper West Side condo, a federal court judge has ruled.
Brigitte Vosse was fined $800 by the city for affixing the light-up sign to the window of her 17th floor apartment in the famed Ansonia on Broadway back in 2010.
The display was particularly eye-catching because the window she put the sign in was in one of the building’s iconic top floor turrets.
The city said she violated a zoning provision that prohibits hanging light-up signs higher than 40 feet in certain districts, including Vosse’s.
Vosse, 61, said the decision violated her right to free speech, while the city said the regulation is part of the city’s “legitimate interests in preserving neighborhood character and an aesthetically pleasing landscape,” staving off the specter of “mini-Times Squares.”
In a ruling made public Friday, Judge Jed Rakoff ruled in favor of the city, noting the regulation provided Vosse with plenty of other alternatives to get her message across — such as using a sign that is not illuminated.
A lawyer for Vosse, Timothy Collins, told the New York Law Journal he and his client were weighing an appeal.
He called her sign “a simple and elegant personal statement about her desire for peace in the world.”
“The fact that it was illuminated made it an effective statement. Otherwise it would have been virtually invisible from her 17th-floor apartment,” he told the paper.
“It is difficult to conclude that the First Amendment offers no protection here.”
Collins told the Daily News Friday the city regulation is “contradictory” because there are exceptions for illuminated banners, but not signs.
A spokesman for the city Law Department said, “We are pleased the court acknowledged that the city appropriately balanced First Amendment rights with the enforcement of zoning rules.”
Originally a residential hotel, the 111-year-old Ansonia has been home to many notable New Yorkers over the years, including Babe Ruth and Igor Stravinsky.
