Big Orange gets installed for 32nd year on InterContinental Miami

MIAMI – For the 32nd consecutive year, Steve Carpenter, also known as Mr. Neon, installed the Big Orange Thursday on the InterContinental Miami hotel.

Carpenter designed and built the 35-foot wide Big Orange to ascend up the 400-foot wall of the hotel to ring in the new year.

It will begin its ascent at 6 p.m. Sunday and will reach the top of the wall at the stroke of midnight to ring in 2018.

"It's not New Years until I say it's New Years," Carpenter joked. "I got the Big Orange to prove it." 

In 2013, the Big Orange was renamed La Gran Naranja to mark the 500th anniversary of Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon’s arrival in Florida. 

De Leon was the first person to introduce oranges to Florida in 1513 when he made a return trip to the state, also bringing cattle and settlers with him.


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Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.