At night, it looks like a radioactive dinosaur, if you squint and turn your head.

Or it could be a robot in disguise, a Transformer stomping through the Back Bay.

In all its metallic glory, a glowing construction crane towers over Belvidere Street and Huntington Avenue, just across from the Prudential Center. It isn’t a bird or a plane, but it is expected to continue soaring over Boston, draped in a necklace of glowing light, an industrial art piece that has turned a jagged gash on the skyline into an instant­ landmark.

It’s been blue and red for the Patriots. It was red, white, and blue for Inauguration Day, all white during the New Year’s holiday, green for the Celtics, green and red for Christmas, and red for Valentine’s Day.

So whose idea was it to wrap the crane in four strands of 1,000-foot LED lights?

It was Richard Friedman’s, the CEO of Carpenter & Co., the developer behind One Dalton, a 61-floor luxury condo tower and Four Seasons Hotel.

“Obviously, construction sites aren’t usually too beautiful,’’ Friedman said. “How do we do something that’s pleasant, that people see at night, and gives it a little interest?’’

In celebration of height, movement, and the ever-changing project, Friedman thought it would be fun to make the crane shine. He pitched his luminescent concept to a room of colleagues in December, when the holiday season was in full swing and most of the city was already aglow.

“I asked, ‘Can we light the crane?’ ’’ Friedman said.

“They looked at me a little inquisitively.’’

But then they said, “We could do that.’’

The crane will rise with the building, eventually reaching 930 feet above the street.

It’s already visible from the Harvard Bridge at night. Like Kenmore Square’s historic Citgo sign, Dick Friedman’s curious crane will soon be visible across the horizon.

One Dalton is expected to be the tallest residential building in Boston. It took more than a year to dig into the bedrock and build the foundation. Above ground, construction workers are averaging a floor a week, Friedman said.

Now, you may ask, how many construction workers does it take to light up a construction crane?

The installation involved multiple crane operators, electricians, and the safety department from Suffolk Construction, the general contractor on the project. A team climbed the mast and boom and affixed the string of lights with plastic wire-ties, said Justine Griffin, spokeswoman for the project and managing director with Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications.

The crane’s colors will change with the seasons or events. The lights are currently controlled by the crane operator from the crane’s cab. Friedman eventually wants to set it up so he can control the technicolor crane with a remote.

Each strand can change to one of 10 colors. The building’s developer won’t provide illumination on how much this light show in the sky costs, but described it as nominal.

It all began as an effort to make a typical construction site a more joyous place at Christmas.

There was no broad, highly thought out scheme, Friedman said.

But then the idea took on a spark of its own.

Cristela Guerra can be reached at cristela.guerra@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristelaGuerra.