The city’s biggest buildings are vying for the brightest spot in the skyline — putting on kaleidoscopic displays as flashy as a Pink Floyd concert with the help of computerized LEDs.
The illuminating arms race is being led by the iconic Empire State Building, which since 2012 has staged light shows for the Super Bowl, Christmas, Halloween, the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve.
Building owner Anthony Malkin even hired renowned lighting designer Marc Brickman — who has lit up Bruce Springsteen and Blue Man Group — for the job.
“If you just throw LED lights on a building, it can end up looking like the red-light district in Amsterdam,” Malkin told The Post.
Prior to the new system, the Empire State crew would spend hours manually changing color discs the size of pizzas on 400 floodlights that shine on the facade. The archaic system had only 10 hues and up to three colors at a time.
Today, there are millions of digital effects and colors from the 72nd floor to the top. With the push of a button, color themes can be changed instantly.
“[Developers] are looking for their facilities to stand out amongst the crowd,” said Jeff Campbell of Philips Color Kinetics, which supplied the Empire State’s lighting system.
Here’s what’s the famous tower and its flashy competitors can do in the night sky:
The Helmsley building
This 35-story Beaux-Arts landmark at 230 Park Ave. has had more than 700 LED fixtures beaming up every night at sunset until 2 a.m. since 2012. The building’s lights — extending from the fifth floor to the roof — have hosted Christmas spectaculars and a weeklong salute to the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos during the 2014 Super Bowl, when team colors blazed across the facade. A building spokeswoman said the Helmsley will turn green for Earth Day but go dark for Earth Hour on March 29.
One World Trade Center
The Freedom Tower — now the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 104 stories — is testing the LEDs on its 408-foot-high spire with bursts of red, white and blue. The Port Authority and co-owner Durst Organization, which first brought LEDs to the city at 4 Times Square and One Bryant Park, expect the program to be ready in the next few months.
One Bryant Park
The Durst Organi- zation first sparked the LED race at Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street with One Bryant Park, also known as the Bank of America Tower, wrapping the 2010 Best Tall Building’s nearly 300-foot-tall spire in lights. With the touch of a remote, building managers can transform the white-lit tower’s top into a swirling rainbow. The 55-story high-rise building’s fixtures debuted in 2010.
731 Lexington Ave.
Developer Vornado Realty Trust tripped the light fantastic last summer with 6,700 program-mable LED panels on three floors at the top of the 55-story building, also known as the Bloomberg Tower. Building reps say the lights emit
16 million hues and can be programmed to create rainbow and cross-fade effects. The lights can be programmed to ripple, which has been done during some holidays, including July 4th and New Year’s Eve, but the colors are static otherwise.The LEDs also fire up for Valentine’s Day, Chanukah, Christmas and will be glowing green tomorrow night for St. Patrick’s Day.
Empire State Building: In 2012, the 103-story landmark’s inaugural show was synchronized to the music of Alicia Keys. Spectators gazed at the facade while listening to one of several radio stations in a show that started with “Girl on Fire” while orange hues flickered before turning pink and white.The tower has 3,678 LED panels that each contain anywhere from 50 to 100 lights. Malkin says his team is preparing aAnother big light show is planned for April. but won’t divulge any details.
Since then, Empire State Building has put on a five-night Christmas show — each performance with different songs and colors — and a Super Bowl special based on fans’ tweets.