ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores interviews, observation, and archival research to uncover this history, and, in so doing, to understand the process of the sign's restoration and re-making. He traces the biography of one thing that scarcely moves, and follow the process of its restoration, to draw the materially engaged and embodied practices of restoration into discussions of making. The practices of re-making and re-lighting a neon sign like this one ignite its biography anew. In order for Castle Argyle to become a working and yet low-maintenance sign the building's management would have to pursue not another patch job, but a complete restoration. To return the sign from double-stroke neon to single-stroke neon would mean a less is more approach–less glass, less light, but more elegance and the original look of the period when the sign was built.
