The exterior of Hollister’s latest local retail palace has 179 flat-screen televisions that play a live beach video from sunny Southern California. Artistic!

Just in front of the screens are “infinity” pools that push the illusion further, making the front of the store seem to be waves of the Pacific Ocean breaking on a Manhattan street.

“The coolest thing is when it’s at 5 or 6 p.m. in New York and starting to get dark,” [a spokesman] said. “The afternoon sun from Huntington Beach really illuminates the street.”

It’s like the ninth wonder of the world or something, after the first seven wonders (Gardens of Babylon? Pyramids of Giza? I don’t know) plus low-fat donuts.

Show your gratitude for Hollister’s public display of brand innovation and stop by to purchase some of their “laid-back, effortlessly cool” wares for the holidays. Your cousin Tammy dresses like shit, and Grandpa Mike could use some new body wash (he smells too much like pigs in the blanket); Hollister’s fashion solutions can resolve those issues. And if you’re reading this post off an Ohio computer, please travel to NYC on a tourist visa as soon as possible to watch the waves video and also visit Times Square.

Weeks after the iconic DKNY ad at Broadway and Houston Street was covered in a dung-like shade of brown, the corner’s transformation is complete. In a matter of hours today, painters finished off the wall with the logo for the Ohio-based surf clothing company Hollister, ready for their store opening in July.

Photos by Bowery Boogie and Racked

Last week, workers began transforming the four-story tall DKNY ad at the corner of Houston Street and Broadway into an ad for Hollister, which is taking over the building’s retail space. As of this morning, the painting of the city’s pre-September 11th skyline is gone with only the lettering faintly visible through the layers of brown. Soon, the wall will be finished off with the logo for the Ohio-based surf clothing company, rendered here.

Photograph by Bowery Boogie

After looming over Houston Street for nearly twenty years, the four-story tall DKNY ad at the corner of Broadway is getting Californicated. Workers are beginning to cover the painting of New York’s pre-September 11th skyline with an ad for Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch’s West Coast-style clothing brand that’s filling in the building’s retail space. Although their parent company is known for scantily clad models and soft-core catalogues, Hollister won’t be competing with the regularly raunchy Calvin Klein billboard nearby. Instead the Ohio-based surfing company will simply slap their logo across the center of the wall, rendered above.

DKNY photo by bergavitto, rendering via Hollister