The new "It's Nice to Have You in Birmingham" sign in Birmingham. (Nathan Watson / Bham Now) — The new “It’s Nice to Have You in Birmingham” sign in Birmingham. (Nathan Watson / Bham Now)

A little over a week since it was first announced, the new “It’s Nice to Have You in Birmingham” sign atop the Two North Twentieth building in downtown Birmingham has been completed. Commissioned by the Greater Birmingham Conventions & Visitors Bureau, the new sign will be featured on the prominent billboard for the next six months.

The Birmingham skyline has a new, vibrant message

Locals and visitors alike now have something bright, vibrant and positive to look for when driving through The Magic City, thanks to the Greater Birmingham Conventions & Visitors Bureau. A massive sign now shares the city’s unofficial slogan, “It’s Nice to Have You in Birmingham,” atop one of the most prominent buildings in the Birmingham skyline.

In addition to the slogan, the new sign spotlights several iconic images of Birmingham, including:

Vulcan
Rickwood Field
Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark
The Alabama Theatre sign
The Rotary Trail arches
The Four Spirits memorial statue

First used in the mid-1900s, “It’s Nice to Have You in Birmingham” has welcomed visitors to The Magic City on signs at the Greyhound Station, the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, Birmingham Terminal Station and more. Among other places, the slogan is currently displayed on the north-facing wall of John’s City Diner, an iconic local restaurant that closed in 2023 after 79 years in Birmingham.

The new sign is located on a massive, 179-foot-wide, 26-foot-tall billboard atop the Two North Twentieth building at 2 20th St N. The billboard was initially installed in 1971 as an electronic sign board with more than 1,300 electronically-controlled incandescent lamps. After the electronics began to fail, the sign was converted to a vinyl-wrapped billboard that has since been used to advertise:

Pepsi (2014-2016)
LP Building Products “Building the Future” (2017-2019)
Wind Creek Casino & Hotel (2019-2023)
Alexander Shunnarah (2023-2024)
Alabama A&M “Start Here. Go Anywhere.” (2024-2026)

According to Trailhead Media, the Mississippi-based media company that owns the billboard, the south-facing side receives 658,798 weekly impressions.

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