BOSTON — Members of the Boston Landmark Commission are in the process of designating the Citgo sign as an official landmark, thereby protecting it from future developers.
Boston University is selling the building to a real estate company called Related Beal and right now, the company is not discussing its plans.
For the Boston community, the sign is an intrinsic part of the city.
"It's an icon in our city,” said Mayor Marty Walsh.
Erica Smith has a strange relationship with the Citgo sign. She's a bus driver in Kenmore Square and for 12 years she's worked right under that giant red triangle.
"How can I put it? It's like the creepy best friend in school but that's like your best friend but he's a creep. You just get used to him. He just grows on you. He grew on me. He's ugly, but I don't want it to leave," she told FOX25.
Commission Member Lynn Smiledge is spearheading the effort to save it and said official landmark status is still months away.
In the meantime, she told FOX25 they're trying to figure out which aspects of the sign are most important, from the color, to the height, to its positioning on top of 660 Beacon St.
"It can't be etched in stone [with the ongoing development]," Smiledge told FOX25. "How do we protect the sign and still allow for growth?"
"I think it's too easy today to get rid of some of those icons around the country. The community loses a little bit of its identity and that's as much of Fenway Park and Kenmore Square's identity as anything else,” Walsh told FOX25.
The landmark commission has not yet scheduled another meeting to discuss the future of the sign.