Welcome back to the NYDesigns blog. Our summer hiatus is past and unfortunately, yours is too.

The NYDesigns staff know that summer's truly over when, after two introspective weeks in a silent fructarian monastery in Appalachia, we spy the godzilla-sized, tomato-red IDCNY sign halfway through the 7-minute walk from the trains at Courthouse Square. We share the building with LaGuardia College CUNY and E. Gluck Corporation, a watch manufacturing company.

In 1908, however, the "Thousand Window Bakery," a best practice factory showcase for the Loose-Wiles Biscuit company originally of Kansas City was the building's sole tenant. All 10 stories of the building housed production, sales and management as well as 2500 employees in a Fabian, sun-infused proletarian paradise, complete with a lending library and a clubhouse. Trading under the name Sunshine Biscuits, the cookies were baked in the shape of Popeye, Olive, Swee'pea, Wimpy, etc. and distributed in tin boxes which are now modestly priced collectibles. Animal crackers originated here. Now a subsidiary of Keebler, Sunshine is now best known for producing the Cheez-It brand of snack crackers.

The "Thousand Window Bakery" was one piece within the larger industrial park of Degnon Terminal, the brainchild of Michael Degnon, entrepreneur and railyard contractor  for the Sunnyside Yards, which abut the building's northwestern facade. Degnon Terminal  was attractive to companies including the Packard Auto Company, Ever Ready, and Chicle (of Chiclets gum) because of the ease in shipping just-manufactured goods via rail straight to distributors.The Sunnyside rail lines haven't seen any traffic since 1989 and the industrial occupants have long moved on to more affordable real estate climes. Sunshine left in the mid '60s.

...but the oversized sign doesn't say "Sunshine Biscuits." IDCNY (International Design Center New York) was a mid-80s experiment by Lazard Development Corporation to create a hub for the contract furniture and trade showrooms just as furniture showrooms couldn't afford to pay for space in Manhattan and just before the real estate world crashed (the last time around). The experiment was not succesful. It would cost tens of thousands of dollars to take the sign down, so there it remains - may it always remind you of us.