OBTAINING SIGN PERMITS IN HISTORIC DISTRICTS

Historic Sign Restoration Projects-Virginia

  Obtaining sign permits in historic districts is generally doable if the intent of historic preservation is in mind. Holiday Signs, a quality custom electric sign company located near Richmond, Virginia, has been involved with many high-profile historic restoration projects: The Hotel John Marshall, The Virginia Repertory Theater, and the Altria Theater, to name several. How one obtains sign permits for signage projects in historic areas varies by location, and contacting Holiday Signs can help you understand the options for permitting these types of sign projects within our service area.

  The following information is an excerpt from an article by Michael J. Auer, The Preservation of Historic Signs, a brief published by the U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, Cultural Resources Section. According to the article, historic signs contribute to the character of buildings and districts and have value in themselves apart from the buildings to which they may be attached. However, any program to preserve historic signs must recognize challenges. Sign preservation involves aesthetic concerns and generates community debate. Community goals often conflict: retaining diverse elements from the past, encouraging artistic expression in new signs, zoning for aesthetic concerns, and reconciling business requirements with preservation.

  That’s why preserving historic signs is not always easy; but the intrinsic merit of many signs, as well as their contribution to the overall character of a place, makes the effort worthwhile. Observing the guidelines given below can help preserve both business and history.

Retaining Historic Signs

Retain historic signs whenever possible, particularly when they are:

• associated with historic figures, events or places.
• significant as evidence of the history of the product, business or service advertised.
• significant as reflecting the history of the building or the development of the historic district. A sign may be the only indicator of a building’s historic use.

• characteristic of a specific historic period, such as gold leaf on glass, neon, or stainless steel lettering.
• integral to the building’s design or physical fabric, as when a sign is part of a storefront made of Carrara glass or enamel panels, or when the name of the historic firm or the date are rendered in stone, metal or tile. In such cases, removal can harm the integrity of a historic property’s design, or cause significant damage to its materials.
• outstanding examples of the signmaker’s art, whether because of their excellent craftsmanship, use of materials, or design.
• local landmarks, that is, signs recognized as popular focal points in a community.
• elements important in defining the character of a district, such as marquees in a theater district.

Maintaining and Repairing Historic Signs

  Maintenance of historic signs is essential for their long-term preservation. Sign maintenance involves periodic inspections for evidence of damage and deterioration. Light bulbs may need replacement. Screws and bolts may be weakened, or missing altogether. Dirt and other debris may be accumulating, introduced by birds or insects, and should be cleaned out. Water may be collecting in or on sign cabinets, threatening electrical connections. The source of water penetration should be identified and sealed.

  Extensive repairs should be undertaken by professionals. The sign industry is a large and active one. Sign designers, fabricators and skilled craftsmen are located throughout the country and finding help from qualified sources should not be difficult. Before contracting for work on historic signs, however, owners should check references, and view other projects completed by the same company.

  Major repairs may require removal of the sign to a workshop. Since signs are sometimes damaged while the building is undergoing repair, work on the building should be scheduled while the sign is in the shop. (If the sign remains in place while work on the building is in progress, the sign should be protected.)

Reusing Historic Signs

If a building or business has changed hands, historic signs associated with former enterprises in the building should be reused if possible by:

• keeping the historic sign—unaltered. This is often possible even when the new business is of a different nature from the old. Preferably, the old sign can be left in its historic location; sometimes, however, it may be necessary to move the sign elsewhere on the building to accommodate a new one. Conversely, it may be necessary to relocate new signs to avoid hiding or overwhelming historic ones, or to redesign proposed new signs so that the old ones may remain. (The legitimate advertising needs of current tenants, however, must be recognized.) Keeping the old sign is often a good marketing strategy. It can exploit the recognition value of the old name and play upon the public’s fondness for the old sign. The advertising value of an old sign can be immense. This is especially true when the sign is a community landmark.
• relocating the sign to the interior, such as in the lobby or above the bar in a restaurant. This option is less preferable than keeping the sign outside the building, but it does preserve the sign, and leaves open the possibility of putting it back in its historic location.

• modifying the sign for use with the new business. This may not be possible without destroying essential features, but in some cases it can be done by changing details only. In other respects, the sign may be perfectly serviceable as is.

 

If none of these options is possible, the sign could be donated to a local museum, preservation organization or other group.

 

Contact a Holiday Signs Project Manager

 

Other Interesting Articles You May Like:

 

 

 I GENERAL SIGNAGE I  MAY 2015                   KEY INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS: RETAIL/FINANCIAL/DEVELOPERS/THEATERS

Historic Preservation – Downtown Development –  Main Street Restoration – VA – MD – DC – NC – Signage

 

Problems with Building Mounted Letters and Signs

VISIBILITY CHECK-UP

  Of any possible problems with building mounted letters and signs, I think readability should be the first concern. When you pass a retail store or medical office and have to squint or slow down to read the sign — or worse, you can’t read it at all from the road — that indicates there’s a visibility problem.

  Other than adequate sizing based on viewing distance, there are 4 big concerns affecting building mounted letters and visibility:

• Cast Shadows
• Viewing Angle
• Color Contrast
• Text Design

CAST SHADOWS

  Many times a client will say, “I don’t like my current sign, but I can’t tell you why.” But our skilled sign designers immediately see the problem. Such is the case when channel letters are not designed with cast shadows in mind.

  “Channel letters” is the term for three-dimensional fabricated letters and logos that light up internally. They are mounted directly to the wall surface, or sometimes on a raceway that is mounted to the wall. The “faces” of the letters are the flat part of the fronts that light up at night, and the “returns” are the edges that go back to the raceway or wall. Channel letters are commonly used for retail store identification at strip centers, malls and stand-alone stores. They are excellent ways to brand a building, whether a specialty retail store, bank, hotel, restaurant or grocery store. They are also used by hospitals to identify emergency rooms, and by colleges to identify buildings on campus. When designed right, the three dimensional quality of channel letters makes them eye-catching and appealing to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Channel letters aren’t limited to storefront walls and can be added to free-standing monument and pylon signs.

  As with any sign, establishing the best contrast between the sign graphics and the background is the key to readability. During the morning hours on clear days, just as customers are beginning to make their way to various retailers, the sun is casting long and dark shadows on the channel letters of the world. Depending on their design, this can either create negative or positive readability. If the letter faces are white, the shadows usually help the letters pop out from a light or dark colored wall. If, however, the background walls are light color and the letters are dark without an outline, the effect of the shadows can make it nearly impossible to read because the letters and the shadows will all blend together (see example 1). The shadow challenge can be overcome by incorporating light color faces with outlines and dark returns.

  Another design strategy of a good channel letter design is to keep the widths of letter strokes wider than the shadow it will cast to help with legibility in bright light and shadows (see example 2). From an engineering standpoint, wide strokes are usually necessary to economically build channel letters and install lighting evenly within them. Also, the width of the lettering affects the viewing angle at which the lettering can be read. The wider the stroke of a letter, the wider the horizontal viewing angle. Viewing angle is important for the visibility of your sign by potential customers passing at close proximity of your storefront.

 

 

VIEWING ANGLE

  “Wide letter strokes” and “getting to the point” are part of the formula for good, readable building letters, but proper viewing angle allows a customer to understand your brand as he turns in off the street and heads your way. Unfortunately, many times a store sign becomes unreadable at wide angles, and if a store is located within a row of stores on the far edge of an internal parking lot off the main road, then considering proper viewing angles early on is critical.

  The term “viewing angle” in sign design these days has different meanings depending on the sign media you’re talking about. When talking about channel letters, we can define viewing angle as the area where people can effectively read a set of letters. Illuminated letters may have a different viewing angle in the day from the viewing angle at night, and it is always a good idea to take a look at other signs in your commercial neighborhood prior to ordering one for your organization to see what works best and what doesn’t.

  Vertical viewing angle measures readability of signs high off the ground. This is a necessary consideration for letters on high-rise buildings, but most retailers with one story buildings need to focus on horizontal visibility. Horizontal viewing angle is the area of view in which a sign can be easily read from points left to right of the sign. Horizontal viewing angle gets wider the farther you move away from the sign, therefore vehicular traffic passing on a main roadway parallel to the sign will have a greater viewing distance than pedestrians or vehicles in the parking area passing right by the front of the store. This is important to remember because while your sign may be legible from the road to lure traffic in, when they get to the row of stores where they thought you were, they may have a difficult time picking up your sign because of the narrowed angle of readability.

  The two examples below demonstrate designs that have adequate horizontal viewing angles from the main road, but only one continues to be readable from close quarters. The reason for the difference is design. The one with the widest viewing angle uses a font with a wide stroke and minimum words. The other uses a narrow stroke font and crowds too many words together on one line. As you approach this sign from angles other than straight-on, the letters eventually run together the closer you get to the store, making it illegible.

 

COLOR CONTRAST

  The top 3 reasons people purchase electric signs are to: 

• Attract Customers
• Stand Out Over Local Competitors
• Help People Remember Their Brand

  Since many signs are individually mounted channel letters and logos on buildings or monument walls made of brick, stone, or tinted stucco materials, you need to pay close attention to color combinations to achieve the best results. If you’re branding a regional chain of stores, the same sign design will not necessarily fit every building application. Other things to consider in initial design are:

• Degree of cast shadows that can either help or hurt the color combination;
• Potential of using outline colors or “clouds” around the letters to improve contrast;
• Night-time conditions and lighting where background and/or graphics colors change;
• Adjusting shades and tones of the colors to make them work.

Do’s & Don’ts of Color Contrast

• Do choose lighter tone backgrounds for darker tone logos and vice versa.
• Don’t choose background/graphics colors that lie next to each other on the color wheel unless they are outlined or backed up with a better contrasting “cloud” color.
  

TEXT CONTRAST

  Effective sign design utilizes contrasting text colors, sizes, shapes, locations, or relationships for specific reasons.

• Creates Interest vs Monotony
• Captures Attention of Target Market
• Establishes Brand Value Perception (Bargain, Expensive, or Neutral Brand)

  Contrast in type style is achieved by mixing serif and sans-serif letter styles, and by using graphics in creative and unique ways.The designing of exterior branding signage should take into account design factors not considered in print design:

• Day/night viewing
• Architectural wall materials (brick, stucco, glass, etc.)
• Site background elements (greenery, urban landscape, sky, etc.)

  Creating good contrast while staying in line with environmental aesthetics can get tricky. The design team at Holiday Signs regularly helps organizations design attractive signage with text that gets 24-hour attention while staying in synch with all this and more. Below are three examples of how we have successfully used contrast in type:

 

FURTHER TOPICS:

 

Technically Challenging Sign Projects:
 

• MeadWestvaco: Why Use Sign Prototypes?
• Virginia Iconic Signs
• Case Study: Hotel John Marshall
• Historic Restoration Case Study
• Powerful Entrance to a Virginia Mixed Use Development
• Dominion Enterprises: High-Rise Branding
• Connects Federal Credit Union
• Historic Restoration-Altria Theater
• ACAC Fitness Centers

 

Branding & Wayfinding Signs:

• Village Bank
• Pearson Auto Group
• The Wilton Companies
• American Family Fitness Centers
• Kings Dominion
• What is the Cocooning Effect?
• Shopping Center Repositioning
• Re-Branding a Retirement Community
• Turning Eyeballs into Smiles
• Green Marketing
• Site Lighting and Your Brand
• Flexible LED Case Study
• Custom Awnings
• Richmond Executive Airport
• Branding Grace Church
• Shopping Center Makeovers Boosting Economic Development
• Branding and Anniversary at Kings Dominion
  
• Uppy’s Convenience Centers

 

Digital Messaging Signs:

 

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

 

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?
• Effective Contrast-Color
• Effective Contrast-Type
• Reverse Channel Letters- Burger Bach Restaurant
• Sign Maintenance- Paint: How Long Should You Wait?

 

Mark Hackley

Account Executive

540-416-3154

 

 

Dominion Enterprises: Limiting the Cost of Maintenance Issues with High-Rise Signs

Photo by Russell Manning

HIGH STAKES

  Maintenance issues with high rise signs are the same as any other electric signs: electrical problems in the power supply or wiring, lighting failures, bad sensors, or some type of sign damage stemming from accidents or the elements are the most common. However, making repairs for these issues at closer-to-ground levels versus roof-top levels makes a big difference when it comes to cost.

  Dominion Enterprises, based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA, moved into a new high rise building in downtown Norfolk and needed to brand it and make a 24/7 statement for the corporate headquarters. Holiday Signs was selected as the contractor for the project because of our technical expertise with signage for high rise applications.

DESIGNING FOR MAINTENANCE CRITICAL

   One critical and overlooked aspect of a high rise sign project is the impact of design on the future costs of sign maintenance and repair. The design and manufacture of signs installed at high elevations is significantly different than signs installed at ground level. Issues of strength, structural integrity, illumination, visibility, reliability, and serviceability are all magnified due to higher wind loads, tougher service environment, much greater viewing distance, and limited or significantly more difficult access to both the front and rear of the sign. Even more importantly, signs installed at a company’s headquarters become a symbol of the company itself and require the boldest designs, best construction and reliable performance to make the appropriate statement high above the city. 

HI-RISE SOLUTIONS

Photo of building at twilight by Russell Manning

  Considering all this, Holiday Signs proposed a solution for effective corporate identity signs at this location that included provisions for efficient maintenance. When the architect and general contractor considered our proposal, they liked that our approach used LED lighting and accessible power supplies while a competing sign manufacturer recommended a neon lighting system with transformers installed inside the letters. Neon is a poor choice from a basic electrical cost standpoint, but reliability and maintenance cost concerns from using a neon system for this application far exceeded the concerns about excessive power costs.

  Another important element of our solution that set us apart involved our recommendation of gray and red as the daytime colors of choice, considering the building color and achievement of the best possible contrast. We suggested 3M Dual Color Film for the face material so the logo would shine white during the night. The competing firm proposed all white graphics for both day and night setting up poor contrast for the letters during the day against the light-colored cast stone walls which would lead to a pale projection of the company’s corporate brand.

GETTING IT RIGHT ON THE GROUND

  To ensure the finished product did its job, we prepared prototype models of the lettering prior to final production with three levels of lighting: one was as specified in the design drawings engineered by others; another was what we recommended for lighting; and a third was a sample halfway in between one and two. By presenting actual lighted samples at nighttime on the wall 32 stories high to the CEO, CFO, and other Dominion executives, we showed them without a doubt how to best illuminate their image and successfully brand their new building to the City of Norfolk.

MORE HIGH-RISE SIGN EXAMPLES

  Holiday Signs was founded in 1973 by Henry Moore and makes some of the most breathtaking custom electric signage in Virginia. Since purchasing the company in 2001, Robert Morin has continued the company’s mission of being the leading custom electric sign company in Central Virginia and regularly serves clients in Richmond, plus the close by areas of Tidewater, and Northern Virginia.

  From historic renovations like the iconic Hotel John Marshall sign to the breathtakingly modern VCU Siegel Center’s digital displays just a few blocks away, Holiday Signs has the skills and experience to take your brand to new heights!  Below is a montage of some more high-rise sign projects we’ve tackled over the past several years:

 

 HJM photo by Jim Smith

Another interesting article about a  High-Rise Electric Sign Project in Virginia:

• MeadWestvaco Corporate Headquarters Building Signage, Richmond

 

Article about interior high-rise scoreboard installation and its challenges:

• VCU Siegel Center Scoreboard, Richmond

 

Article about restoring a historic high-rise sign:

• Restoring The Historic Hotel John Marshall Sign, Richmond

 

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How Much Does Sign Replacement Cost?

TO REPLACE OR UPGRADE- THAT IS THE QUESTION

  There are some electric signs around Virginia you just can’t replace: like Richmond’s pre-Depression era Hotel John Marshall’s historic rooftop sign, or the historic marquee at the Virginia Repertory Theater. In cases of historic signage, restoration is always the first option to consider versus total replacement.

  But most signs don’t reach antique status before they need to be replaced or retrofitted. Such is the case with signage for most of our commercial customers: Among our wide-range of retail customers utilizing electric signage, we help banks and credit unions replace signs in single or multi-location image upgrades and acquisitions; lend a hand to healthcare customers re-imaging former retail and industrial spaces to new clinics; serve shopping center developers by upgrading their center’s street-appeal.

  In lieu of complete sign replacements, we sometimes replace only certain components, such as changing out neon or replacing old manual or bulb-type electronic message boards with new LED technology.

Five big triggers for sign replacement:

1-Wear and Tear: Signs, like any exterior structure, fade and deteriorate given enough time and eventually need repair or replacement. You can compare an outdoor sign to your car. Since Holiday Signs uses quality acrylic polyurethanes like the auto industry, the time it takes your car’s finish to lose its luster is the same timeframe your sign starts going downhill.

2-Damage: Replacement may become necessary after a delivery truck hits a sign, or a severe windstorm blows out a face or knocks over a structure. Since most custom electric sign fabrication takes weeks or months to complete, don’t forget to ask the sign company to provide a temporary banner while the new signage is being fabricated. That way your customers won’t forget who and where you are.

3-Technology Changes: Older sign technologies like incandescent-bulb electronic signs, manual message boards, or neon signs are commonly replaced with newer, more economical technologies, like LED message centers and LED lighting.   

4-Identity Changes: New logos, slogans, color schemes or building upgrades can spark the need for new signs at one location or multiple sites across a region in our service area. (See Pearson Auto Re-imaging Case Study.)

5-Entity Changes: When new companies move into spaces of previous businesses, all the signage needs to be changed out usually quickly and smoothly.

Levels of sign replacement:

1-FACE CHANGES: Depending on the condition and color of sign cabinets and structures, sometimes the only things needing replacement are the removable sign faces. Often, it’s a good idea to invest in re-designing or at least re-painting the cabinets and sign structures along with face changes to make the greatest impact. Professional sign companies will typically conduct a field survey to get the exact dimensions for new faces and measurements for any desired upgrades for the cabinets and pole covers. At the same time, they can check for any needed sign repair work such as lamps, ballasts, sockets, wiring, and light sensors. The average Richmond sign-service labor rates vary by company, level of equipment and workmen needed, but normally range from $100-220 an hour. Material and labor cost to make new sign faces depends on design level, size and height of sign, number of faces and type of face material. Updating cabinet or structure colors adds cost, and changing the design of the structure requires more investment. To get a feel of pure face-replacement cost, we recently replaced the faces for a Virginia retailer’s 2-sided average size pole-type electric sign with embossed polycarbonate graphics and pan-formed edges for $4,000 plus an extra $600 to straighten the existing poles and repair part of a concrete foundation damaged in a windstorm.

2-Technology Upgrades: SEE: “How Much Does a Digital Sign Cost?” and “What’s the Cost to Upgrade Message Boards?” and “LED vs NEON”.

3-Complete Sign Removal and Replacement: We recently re-branded a former video store into a retail health clinic. We removed a fairly large pole sign, leaving the concrete footer below grade, for about $1,200, and then designed, fabricated and installed a comprehensive building-mounted sign package of channel letters and awnings, swapping out channel letters and recovering old awnings for an additional $23,000. Every building is different, and signage that fits one application won’t fit the next, so it’s hard to nail down an average range for such customized sign projects. Sign replacement projects range in the thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost, depending on the scope of work. Contact a project manager for a more detailed quote to fit your exact application. (See Great Examples/Costs of Shopping Center Sign Upgrades and Replacements.)