There's a Flickr group called "Vintage Motel Signs Only" with shots and descriptions of, er, vintage motel signs.

The bad news is there are 8,700 to wade through.

Over to you, Chris: http://www.flickr.com/groups/355438@N24/pool/page1/

On the inside CD Insert, the band is walking in a Motel parking lot. Looks pretty rundown. I'm betting this place is probably gone or completely renovated by now.

The inside of the CD cover shows a multi level, circular platform as a background for the album notes. It is also partially and abstractly used as a background plate for the star sign on the cover. This structure was the sign for the Bon-Aire Motel which is estimated to have been demolished in 1999. This motel was part of the Sunny Isles Motel Row of Miami Beach. Both the album photos and some historic photos are depicted here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29842042@N05/

This also includes a postcard depiction that has the address of the motel on the back. A search of Google Earth with this address shows several highrises now in place where the motel once stood.

I would guess the mace like star sign from the album cover was also near this area. The architecture of Motel Row is classic 'MiMo' (Miami Modern, a style that emerged in the 50's and lasted through the 70's), so it would stand to reason that it was from structure in the same vicinity. I'll keep digging!

That flickr link from the first poster really helped get me on the right track. I didn't find the Bon Aire Motel sign there, but it helped me find a guy that had some old photos that he posted of those old motels. I'll keep looking for pictures of the star sign motel, but given what I've found, I have heavy doubts it's still there. The motel row that was largely intact when the REM photos were taken in 1992 is now all but gone. Like you, I've been curious about it for years.

I've posted a new photo from the REM special edition of AFTP that has a different angle of the Star Sign, and here it is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29842042@N05/2803282755/

Thanks to the DVD Audio version of Automatic for the People, which I recently acquired. It contained the following photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29842042@N05/2841343386/

This gives us a bit of the context of the star. Because of my recent find of the old Bon Aire Motel Sign (also featured in the inside booklet of AFTP, and discussed above) I assumed that the star was probably part of Motel Row as the Bon Aire was. That was incorrect. The motel is in Miami on Biscayne Blvd and is called the Sinbad Motel. The portion of the sign visible in the photo above helped me go back to the Sinbad, as I had considered before. The star is no longer there, but the Motel is still operational today, even though its quite rundown. One could reasonably assume the star ornament was probably damaged in a hurricane and never repaired. You can see the neon motel script for the Sinbad below, and it matches the bits of the writing visible in the photo above, particularly the 'I'. You'll note the support for the star is still in place.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiki_kiliki/1510175046/

The Motel is still standing today, and you can see it on Google Earth. There are more photos of the Sinbad Motel if you search Flickr. The address is:

6150 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Florida 33137

Apparently, the star was surrounded in Neon tubing that was already in disrepair when photographed by Anton Corbijn for the AFTP photo sessions. The neon was cropped out for the cover and the cropped star was superimposed over some abstracted portions of the Bon Aire Motel Sign. Another photo of the star from the DVD Audio Disk:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29842042@N05/2841343706/

So... now that this mystery is solved, I have no idea what to do with my free time!! Pretty cool to finally know though. Cheers.

I've added it to the Album Covers Map from The Word.

Cheers.

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/album_atlas/FullListing.php

this is incredible bit of deductive work well done i knew the net could solve this mystery, we could have emailed Anton I suppose! I think we (you?) should add it to wikipedia in some way and that will start the process of changing all the other sites that reuse wiki stuff well done again.

I've added it to wiki.. first time I've tried that. Pretty cool. I have no idea how to send to Anton Corbijn, but I'd be happy to. Just so you know, I went out and purchased the DVD Audio of AFTP, it advertised additional Corbijn pictures from the original shoot, and that's what gave me the context needed to pinpoint which motel it was. So once I got that, then the internet helped me. I actually saw the slanted support on some current pictures of the Sinbad, but passed it over until I got that DVD. Pretty cool. CSI Miami, here I come!

I don't know if you're interested but these signs are called Neo-Lectras. I've got a bunch of them here:
http://www.agilitynut.com/sca/roto2.html