Salt Lake City downtown looks for new direction
By Derek P. Jensen
Some are dreadfully out of date, pointing people to the now-renamed "Delta Center." Others are shabby, chipped, tagged by graffiti or blocked by tree branches.
Downtown’s blue and bronze signs that direct people to shopping districts, theaters, public parking, Temple Square, the airport and more are dated, city officials fret.
So the City Council is poised to approve a makeover — for nearly half a million dollars — that will give the signs a fresh and accurate look in time for City Creek Center’s opening in March.
"This seems, to us, to be a pretty clear need," said Downtown Alliance Executive Director Jason Mathis, whose organization will help foot the bill.
Despite City Creek’s 28 entrances, Mathis notes it has no signs out and may seem fortress-like to the thousands of downtown newcomers looking for other amenities.
"As people leave," he added, "they may not know where to go or how to find their way to other points in the downtown center. Clearly, there is a need for a signage system that makes sense."
The city hired Infinite Scale Design Group, a Salt Lake City-based design firm known for successful branding efforts at the Super Bowl, to study the capital’s so-called "wayfinding" system. Infinite Scale found the signs dated, some poorly placed, and most designed more for vehicle traffic than for pedestrians.
The firm recommended three options: a $100,000 patch job, that would correct outdated names like Delta Center; a $450,000 "freshening" that would upgrade the paint and look; or a complete overhaul that may cost $2 million.
"There’s no question this needs to be done," Councilman Carlton Christensen recently told the council. But he worries option two may be "throwing away $450,000."
After debating the investment this fall, the council elected to fund an option-two hybrid — spending half the money on a sign face-lift and half on a master plan to guide an eventual wayfinding overhaul. A formal vote is expected before the end of the year.
"I’m hesitating with that large investment because my guess is that’s the last time we’ll see this for awhile," said Councilman Stan Penfold, who suggested the hybrid model.
An estimated $200,000 for the upgrade will come from the Redevelopment Agency and the Downtown Alliance. The balance would come from the city’s general fund.
Mathis supports the decision, saying a partial makeover now will be more "transitional," not a "Band-Aid" waste of money. The city must next issue a bid for the work. The existing stands and sign posts will remain, but the signs will be re-done by early spring.
Infinite Scale presented examples of modern wayfinding systems in cities ranging from Portland, Ore. and Atlanta to London and Cabot Circus, U.K.
Council members agreed they want a similar Cadillac-version eventually, but say they are nervous about slim budgets for the foreseeable future. They argue a quick fix — spending a couple hundred thousand dollars rather than a couple million — is appropriate for the times.
Yet Councilman Luke Garrott wonders whether "static" signs, no matter how pretty, are outdated. He notes cities that have incorporated digital elements with expandable signs now have wayfinding markers that last, "in theory, 50 years, not 10."
The city’s existing sign system — put in place for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games — is a decade old.
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