CASE STUDY: LARGE SIGN STRUCTURES

Signage Renovation at The Hotel John Marshall, Richmond, VA

Many times a building becomes a landmark because of the large sign structures on top.  In Richmond, Virginia, that’s the case with the Hotel John Marshall. Several years ago, the once grand sixteen story icon had all but faded into the background of Richmond’s historic downtown in dire need of a sign restoration. In 2011, Holiday Signs got the chance to help revive it by restoring its vintage roof marquee using energy efficient signage components.

When the hotel first opened in 1929, it was the largest hotel in Virginia offering all the amenities of luxury hotels of that era. Named after Virginia’s longest serving Supreme Court Chief Justice, its marble and gold lobby, cathedral doorways and spacious stairways lured in many famous guests throughout the years. After the recent $70 million renovation, the refurbished historic hotel now houses multiple floors of residential apartments with retail and office space on the lower levels.

The sign was a historic landmark. It needed work to restore it back to its original vitality. Built years ago and abandoned in 1988, it became a ghostly reminder of its neglected past. It was rusting away. The lighting in the 34 large, 7 foot tall letters was the old incandescent bulb type. There were some 1,400 light bulbs per side which were major energy hogs always in need of maintenance. They regularly burned out and there was a big safety concern involved with changing them.

When the new owners took on redevelopment in 2009, they needed to make substantial energy improvements to obtain HUD funding. Holiday Signs was chosen as the best firm qualified for the sign restoration. We worked for Choate Interiors, a part of Choate Construction, the General Contractor. Even with the developer’s 3-year relationship with another sign company, we got the job because of our technical expertise. From an owner’s point of view, we wanted to make the investment in the sign renovation economic over the lifetime of the sign: both initial cost, and operating costs of energy and maintenance. We also had to make sure the new cost-efficient signage was historically accurate.

Our creative solution replaced old incandescent bulbs with low-voltage LED lighting that looked historically correct by using modern digital printing technology. We recommended closed face letters with printed covers that would make them look like the old open-faced bulb letters while offering the LED lighting components protection from the elements of the harsh rooftop environment. We demonstrated prototypes and then met with the Chief Architect for the National Park Service (since the hotel overlooks Richmond’s Slave Trail it is under NPS jurisdiction), and representatives from the City of Richmond and the General Contractor to tweak the digitally printed bulb designs and LED lighting placement to where all parties were satisfied with the effect.

By utilizing LED, power consumption for illumination was reduced by 70%. As an added value service, we worked with Dominion Power to get the General Contractor a substantial rebate for the huge energy reduction. Today, the renovated energy efficient signage casts an accurate image of Richmond’s bygone era while utilizing many of the benefits of modern-day sign and lighting technology in its day to day operation.

 

     Residences at the John Marshall Website

     Photography Provided by Jim Smith/ Flying Dog Photography,

     804.543.3995

 

    

 

  For New Sign and Signage Restoration Inquiries, Contact: Mark Hackley, Account Executive, mhackley@holidaysigns.com

 

If you liked this article, you may also like:

 

Restoration of an Historic Richmond Theater Marquee

How Digital Messaging Can Help Shopping Centers Lure and Retain Tenants

An Important Wayfinding Term to Learn and Remember

See How One Virginia Mixed-Use Development Makes a Huge First Impression

What is Risk-Free Digital Messaging?

The Value of Sign Prototypes and Getting Things Right on the Ground

 

• Read about the Hotel John Marshall and how Holiday Signs renovated its historic rooftop sign on Wikipedia

• Engineering News Record Article

 

 

• Technically Challenging

Virginia Iconic Signs

Why Use Sign Prototypes?

Case Study: Hotel John Marshall

Historic Restoration Case Study

Powerful Entrance to a Virginia Mixed Use Development

 

 

• Branding & Wayfinding

What is the Cocooning Effect?

Shopping Center Repositioning

Roanoke Airport’s new Wayfinding System

Re-Branding a Retirement Community

Turning Eyeballs into Smiles

 

 

• Digital Messaging

Case Study: Towne Center West’s Digital Advertising Sign

Case Study: Green Top Sporting Goods’ Electronic Message Center on I-95

Using Co-op Dollars to Fund Digital Signage

Using Digital Signs to Connect with the Community

10 Reasons to Upgrade to On-Premise Digital Advertising

 

 

• General Signage

6 Reasons to Retrofit Neon to LED

Consideration of Sunlight and Shadow in Signage Design

Consideration of Viewing Angle in Signage Design

Sign Illumination Choices

How Can Specialty Sign Lighting Techniques Position Your Brand?

 

 

 

Meanwhile…

You own and operate a store or two in Virginia. One of your toughest challenges is developing a steady flow of customers year round. You’re hoping your newly restructured marketing mix does the job in getting more bodies into the aisles.

Your radio advertising’s morning drive campaign just broadcast two 30-second ads. One of the employees caught the end of one on her way into work.

In a Facebook post, your friend’s wife mentioned she saw your newspaper ad for the first time on the back of one of her coupons. It’s been running six months. As you were responding to her post you happened to see one of those banner ads you run for your store on the side bar.

An older couple from church called to say they enjoyed your 60-second TV ad they saw a few times last month after the 11 o’ clock news. They thought it was cute.

Word of mouth awareness about your store is getting around and lots of people recognize your name and a little bit about your products, but few know in detail what you offer or your exact location. You’ve been in business almost twenty years!

Meanwhile, your stores’ brand new electronic message displays are working hard; working hard to capture the attention of all the people who pass your stores each day: broadcasting your story; advertising your promotions; leading buyers into the stores. You discovered from Holiday Signs that digital signs really work and should be part of your successful new marketing strategy.

As you turn off the coffee pot in the break room, you see reflections of the ever-changing full color LED lights from the display against the wall. You know that even though you’ve trimmed back advertising in other media this year, your messages are out there where it counts. Twenty-four hours a day right at your front door!

 

Contact a Project Manager about Digital Advertising at your Location!

 

6 BENEFITS OF DIGITAL SIGNS:

• Part 1- They Connect With The Community
• Part 2- They Can Be Paid For By Your Vendors
• Part 3- They Grab Attention of the Masses
• Part 4- They Allow You to Own the Media Channel
• Part 5- They Have a Long Track Record of Getting Attention
• Part 6- Use Them for Promoting Loss Leaders

Sometimes you wonder why some meant-to-be permanent signs are made of painted wood or PVC. Would you buy a car made of plywood or PVC? But sometimes even painted metal signs can fail before their time when improper coatings are used. The fabrication and paint shop at Holiday Signs understands proper surface preparation, correct primers, finish coats, drying time needed between coats, etc.  We recently upgraded some deteriorating wayfinding signs for Eastern Mennonite University. The previous campus sign system consisted of old metal signs that were chalking and fading and they just didn’t convey the organization’s brand. Prospective students and their parents could see and feel a great brand when researching the college on-line, but had the potential to lose that warm and fuzzy feeling when on the real-life campus. A big part of that branding confusion was due to campus signage in need of a makeover.

 

After several meetings with the marketing and facilities directors, we helped jump-start the project and implemented a program of new traffic directional pylons around campus. After that we helped initiate prototype building identification signs, which were simple painted post and panel type markers. Working with their graphic designer, we then upgraded their campus light pole banners and have helped with large banners for their athletic department. Occasionally the college has a special project that we become involved with. I remember a project for a garden space where we provided historical markers, all with the consistent brand of the rest of their new signage system. We recently presented some good ideas to implement digital messaging at their student center and always enjoy working with all of the good people at the university. The new signage is constructed of painted aluminum and finished with exactly the same type of rugged paint as the automotive finish on a new car. I am very confident they will be around for a long time before needing an upgrade.

Eastern Mennonite is just one of our many educational clients. We help many colleges and universities in Virginia and North Carolina including Shenandoah   University, Ferrum College, Lord Fairfax Community College, the University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, The University of Mary Washington, The College of William and Mary and many other state and private schools. Holiday Signs is part of the collaborative business program of the Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia (CICV). 

 

Contact Mark Hackley, Account Executive at Holiday Signs: (540)416-3154

www.holidaysigns.com

 

• COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT CUSTOM DONOR WALLS AND SPECIAL DONOR RECOGNITION PROJECTS
• COLLEGE POLE BANNER SYSTEMS
• COLLEGE WAYFINDING SIGNAGE PACKAGES
• CHANNEL LETTERS FOR 24-HOUR COLLEGE BUILDING IDENTIFICATION
• CAMPUS LIGHTING MAINTENANCE
• ELECTRONIC MESSAGE CENTERS FOR COLLEGE COMMUNICATIONS AND SAFETY PROGRAMS
• SIGNAGE FOR ATHLETICS
• CUSTOM MARKERS AND PLAQUES
• INTERIOR SIGNAGE

 

 

So how does a meeting last night in Harrisonburg, Virginia about Civil War literature connect in with sign colors? Let me explain. I often attend the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Round Table (an informal group of people sharing a common interest in Civil War topics who meet on the second Monday of every other month at 7:30pm at the Rockingham County Administrative complex on Gay Street in Harrisonburg, VA.) I usually go to the meetings with my ophthalmologist friend, Dr. Jim from Westminster Presbyterian Church, who became interested in Civil War history because of his direct ancestors who fought and died in that conflict. Jim goes to every meeting he can all over the place from Richmond to Fredericksburg to Winchester. He has been to Gettysburg more times than I’ve written blogs, and I think his interest in the war will increase after he retires from his medical practice for which I provided a nice pylon sign years ago.

So after last night’s talk featuring Walt Whitman’s “Drum Taps” and Stephen Crane’s “The Red Badge of Courage,” Dr. Jim and I somehow got into a conversation about color blindness and how many people are affected by the condition. One common color vision defect is called the red-green deficiency, which is mostly a genetic issue and is present in about 8 percent of males and 0.5 percent of females. People with this condition have a difficult time discriminating red and green hues due to the absence of red or green retinal photoreceptors. On my drive home, I passed the new CVS store in our town and noticed the storefront channel letter branding signage is bright red, so I wondered about sign design implications relating to people with color blindness. Lo and behold when I got home and opened Wikipedia there was a whole section on this exact topic. It is so important for an organization’s signage to be consistent from store to store. I guess 8.5 percent of the people in my town may have problems discerning the exact branding color of CVS but since their signs are consistently the same design from store to store, it would be easy for all customers to recognize the CVS brand…color blind or not.

Back to the Civil War, Holiday Signs has helped many of Virginia’s Battlefield Parks and Museums with quality signage, including Pamplin Historical Park in Richmond and The Museum of the Confederacy in Appomattox. If you’re interested in history, I hope you will visit some of the six Civil War National Battlefield Parks and other Civil War battle and historical sites located around Virginia, especially during this special Sesquicentennial period that lasts through 2015. Our speaker told the group last night that when writing his novel about the Civil War in 1895, Stephen Crane used the word red throughout his book to emphasize the bloodshed, injuries, and explosive blasts of war. One good thing about the black and white photography of the day and color blindness is that the tragedies often associated with that particular color during war are a little less graphic.