Can you help me understand something in these paragraphs?

"Covered-in" in the second sentence means that the building is "decorated" with neon lights and the "it" you are talking about means the tower. Line one and sentence one tells you that the tower is the subject and main noun of the sentence because the verb (rises) follows this; therefore, the "it" in line two refers to this tower. Hope this helps. I have been out of school and English cl for about 8 years! :)