A few days ago, I passed the Plaza Hotel on 5th Avenue. I did a double-take and then I took this picture. Look closely: on its front facade, the Plaza is wearing a cleverly fitted covering, designed and detailed to look like the building itself. Apparently the hotel is under construction; the side facing Central Park, visible at the right in this photo, has its own mesh-like cover to protect passersby from falling debris.
I don’t know what the view from inside the Plaza must be these days, with all this work going on, but the trompe l’oeil tarp is a nifty way to deal with the exterior.
TINSEL CREATION 
Brilliant isn’t it? Our City Hall has had those for 2 years now. It’s less of an eye sore for tourists taking pictures.but mainly for the people working in the area.
Definitely! Imagine looking at a plain cover for a year or two? This is much more fun.
I follow a lot of building/construction/skyscraper blogs and forums. I *think* I’ve seen one or two other buildings do this before. I think it’s really clever and fun. I can also imagine some cool public art projects to be done with it!
Yes! It could be a blank canvas for public art on non-historic buildings!
That’s really amazing. I’ve never seen that before.
Me neither! I can’t even imagine the fabrication costs of something like this… but it’s great.
On my recent trip to Ukraine I saw that type of the covering done… instead of actual remodeling. The city I visited hosted a European Socker Tournament last year so they covered a lot of old buildings that they didn’t have time to fix on the route from the airport to the downtown. A year later it was in the same condition.