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New Old Signs on the Left Coast

Renovated neon, new wayfinding and updated gateways pass through permit standards to strut Los Angeles style.

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We’ll begin our tour of Los Angeles signs by jumping back to 1985. Looking out the left of your tour bus, you will see the general manager of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Adolfo V. Nodal, beginning his neon-restoration project with a windshield survey of rooftop signs. By this method, he will find roughly 150 signs to restore.

Jumping several weeks ahead and casting your eyes upward, you will see a helicopter surveying the Los Angeles area, and it will find even more signs laying flat on roofs. Altogether, approximately 60 signs will be restored on Wilshire Blvd., more than 50 in Hollywood, which added the blade-style signs to the project, and 50-60 signs downtown, which will add marquee-style signs to the project.

Hollywood neon, the sequel

After years of fundraising, Nodal finally had enough support to work on the project, but says there have been set-backs the entire way.

In 1992, the riots hit, and we had to put money into recovery,” he says. “In 1993, the earthquake hit, and it was the same thing. Then there was the O.J. Simpson verdict.”

Heading the current restoration project is Ray Neil of Standard Electric Services (Sun Valley, CA), who finished Wilshire Blvd. four and a half years ago and the Hollywood area about three years ago.

According to Neil, they are now working with signs in downtown Los Angeles, which includes four structures from the pre-neon era that use incandescent light bulbs.

“Some of these signs haven’t been running for 50 years or longer,” he says. “The trusses and steel were pretty much intact, with a little corrosion, maybe a few bolts here and there, so restoration basically involved new wiring, neon and transformers.”

From Standard Electric Services’ 22 employees, Neil hand-picked a few to restore the signs, those who could work in delicate places or rough neighborhoods.

“Some signs required hours of manual labor, but some were easy,” Neil says. He couldn’t figure what the fabricators had in mind when installing some of the signs, but they seemed crazy.

“One had two letters sticking out over the building, just for the hell of it. The fabricators did crazy things just because they could. Steel workers are the toughest guys I’ve ever met in my life,” Neil relates. And he would know, due to his experience working on projects with guys who built the Golden Gate Bridge.

A three-week restoration time is typical for each sign, but according to Neil, no sign is really typical. And each one is a piece of history.

“Up there we find old whiskey bottles and matchbooks in good condition. I love it. The project is wonderful,” he says.

Although Neil was appointed by the city, he still had to obtain city approval with each sign. For other projects, Neil says obtaining permits is generally one of his biggest headaches. He says, “The softer a man’s hands, the shorter time he’ll want it finished. Often people think, ‘You’re the city, and we hate the city. We don’t want to fill out paperwork for four days.’ For the neon restoration project, the signs themselves keep me going. The city engineer said one couldn’t be restored — the old Jensen Recreation sign. At the lighting ceremony, I couldn’t stop smiling at him.”

Within the past year, the project’s completion looked dubious when news broke that Nodal was leaving his position with Cultural Affairs. But as the catalyst for the entire operation, Nodal couldn’t leave his project unfinished.

After having discussed the future with the city and Neon Museum, among others, he says the restoration will continue, headed by a nonprofit organization committee funded with $200,000 from the city. Nodal, who will chair the committee pro-bono, estimates another one and a half years until completion.

Continuing our tour, we drive out to LAX Airport, where you will see large, colored pylons on either side of the tour bus, forming into a circle that the bus will drive through. When neon signs were first exploding in Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles, it is here, 19 miles away, that the site of one of the world’s busiest airports was established.

However, in 1928, Angelites couldn’t have imagined the barley fields surrounding the dirt runway would be home to LAX Airport’s 21st-century, electric symphony version of Stonehenge.

Electric Stonehenge

Beginning two and a half years ago, Ted Tokio Tanaka Architects (TTTA), Los Angeles, was unanimously chosen by a panel of nine judges from four finalists. Tanaka’s 15-person firm beat out much larger firms, principal Ted Tanaka says, because of its local knowledge and passion for the project.

“First there was a ‘Request for Qualification,’ which is different than a request for proposal, as they aren’t looking at what you can do, but at your past experience and potential capabilities,” Tanaka says. “The question we had to answer was: How do you beautify airport property? We created a menu of things they could select, each with a cost estimate.”

Start to finish, the first phase of LAX was completed in about seven months — a rapid pace for a project of that size. The city realized the Democratic convention was approaching and wanted to push the project to completion for the event.

“We feel good about the project, and people in the city love it,” Tanaka says. “It was a difficult project, but these are always difficult to do in the public sector.” The second phase will include the enhancement of the exterior loop terminal, lighting, paving and additional public art.

The project is inspired by the diversity of L.A. and aviation, Tanaka says. “We wanted to create an architectural space people can come through to an area where they feel they have arrived. There’s a glimpse of Hollywood,” he explains.

The project, which incorporates more than 300 colors, imparts the glamor of the city, yet maintains functionality because it directs people to the airport. According to Tanaka, “It’s an electric Stonehenge. We were definitely inspired by that. People used to hate to go to the airport, but now we hear otherwise.”

In total, 26 pylons guide people to their destinations. Eleven glass cylinders along Century Blvd., staggering from 25-60 ft. in height, and 6 ft. in diameter, lead to 15 cylinders on Sepulveda Blvd., each 12 ft. in diameter, forming a 560-ft.-diameter circle, measuring 210 ft. above sea level.

As an electrical consultant under the design-build team chosen by Helix Electric Inc. (San Diego), Moody Ravitz Hollingsworth (MRH) Lighting Design Inc. (Los Angeles) researched several light sources, including fluorescent, cold cathode, neon and LED, but finally chose a modified theatrical lighting setup.

Both principal Dawn Hollingsworth and associate Jeremy Windle agreed the lighting choice was a long process. They immediately discounted fiberoptics because of its dimness. Neon transformers and tubes would be too cumbersome, as would fluorescent lights, which include large amounts of expensive ballasts and high maintenance costs. Also, fluorescence would consume 66% more power than other light sources.

When considering LED, its energy, maintenance benefits and brightness were acceptable, but Hollingsworth says the technology mixes color in an additive nature (red, green, blue), and they were already committed to subtractive color mixing (cyan, magenta, yellow).

“[With additive color mixing,] you cannot get dark colors, like a very deep blue,” Hollingsworth explains. “You only have the primary blue, and any light you add to that only makes the blue paler. So you don’t get past the primary to a darker color.”

Thus, MRH used Martin fixtures with dichroic filters and subtractive color mixing on Sepulveda pylons, and Altman CDM fixtures with exterior, 150-watt lamps in 4,000K color temperature on Century pylons, matching the Sepulveda’s 5,600K as closely as possible. Two gel strings, with blue-magenta-clear film on one and magenta-yellow-clear film on the other, enable them to run two scrolls on top of one another. Windle says they added another color, a Mylar® blackout frame, in case they needed to black out the color entirely.

Because the design called for no structural shadows, Hollingsworth says two layers of diffuse glass surface were used inside to catch the light and move it up the 3/8-in. clear glass, making the cylinders appear brighter.

“The steel core superstructure is actually square with the circle of the glass cylinder around it, so the distance between the glass and the steel structure varies across each face,” Windle says. “To maintain uniformity, the light fixture had to be the same distance away from the glass. Now we were cantilevering a 100-lb. light fixture and a 30-lb. bracket 8 in. off a 2-in. steel structure.” The structure was erected on three earthquake faults, between a cloverleaf of traffic, Hollingsworth says.

The job required two permits. Century and Sepulveda are separate jurisdictions, one from the Department of Public Works, the other from the Bureau of Engineering.

“We had to separate out two permits, and it was just an unbelievable amount of coordination,” Hollingsworth says.

Windle also says they had to contact the tower every time they tested the lights because they are located in a controlled area.

“Potentially, we can make these things strobe five times a second, make them snap color changes, chase them, all sorts of distracting things,” he says. The lights were even wired for video, but the lighting designer had to pace himself because of the delicate area between air and auto traffic.

Present-day rooftop neon

Walt Disney commissioned National Sign Corp. (Seattle) to build a rooftop neon sign in Seattle, then ship it to Los Angeles in eight, 8 x 24-ft. crates. National Sign Operations Manager John Genge says the sign codes were obtained by efforts from Disney and National Sign through extensive contact with the city.

Installed by PS Services (Santa Ana, CA), the seven-story sign features an open-channel, neon-display body using Matthews (Reedsville, WI) polyurethane paint, EGL (Berkeley Heights, NJ) Accuwal® tubing with Novial gold neon and 125 transformers from France (Fairview, TN), for a total of 6,000 ft. of glass tubing and 5,000 sq. ft. of fabricated aluminum pieces.

National Sign President Tim Zamberlin custom designed the attachment that holds the sign to the wall, 15-16 stories off the ground. The project took 20 workers 12 weeks to complete.

Left meets further left

Back in the ’20s, the main drag in Corona, CA, 47.4 miles from downtown Los Angeles, was just that — a dragstrip. Surviving depression and recession, the city that formed around (and on) the track is building a retail redevelopment district. Corona chose Wieber Nelson Design Inc. (WND), San Diego, to create a futuristic expression.

Even with the full backing from the city, this project is estimated to span three years.

Harmon Nelson, WND principal, says his firm wanted to design the concept with the city’s layout, the “C” in Corona and the city’s commitment to a futuristic look in mind.

Contracting with Bravo Sign & Design (Orange, CA), WND unveiled a new logo and concepts for illuminated, 12-ft. freestanding median sculptures painted in six high-gloss colors. Nelson says the roll-formed, 1/4-in. aluminum plate will be painted with linear polyurethane.

Law of the land: L.A. sign codes

We aren’t suggesting Los Angeles has the craziest signs, the most daring subject matter, or the newest technology. These can be argued by other cities worldwide. What Los Angeles does have is a high density of “Left Coast” inhabitants whose attention, style and spending power are coveted by entrepreneurs everywhere. Like any major city, this creates tension between pro- and anti-sign advocates.

Michael LoGrande, planning associate for the city planning department, says 17-20 neighborhoods review their own sign codes and decide what is appropriate.

“There are also supplemental-use districts set up to decide what is best for an area. For example, Hollywood might want more daring signs, versus certain shopping districts that don’t want as obtrusive signage,” he explains.

LoGrande talks of a recently formed sign task force, designed to discuss sign-code issues that includes members of the city council, sign industry and public.

“The city especially needs discussion of types of signs that have sprung up in the last couple of years, such as video, supergraphics, projections, inflatables,” he says.

Ken Spiker Jr., a task force member representing outdoor advertisers, notes the outdoor-advertising industry’s proposal to the city to voluntarily remove 1,560 billboard locations, if the city trades for 78 billboards along the freeways and in industrial areas.

“That’s 20 down for every new billboard,” Spiker says. “This is the first time the industry has ever come together to propose something like this. But it’s win-win for both sides.” Currently, Los Angeles is under a temporary halt on outdoor billboards for 180 days, with two possible 180-day extensions.

Permit advice from an expert

Kirk Brimley, director of permit services at Young Electric Sign Co., and special sign-code consultant to the International Sign Assn., offers some advice for working through the sign-code process of a job.

“First thing to know is what is allowed,” Brimley says. “There’s a responsibility on both sides. The sign company helps people looking for a sign by knowing the codes.” According to Brimley, this is one of the values a sign company provides the public.

“Be prepared before you ever start the process. Permit applications must be filled out in full before you get to the counter. If you have that, you don’t have as many problems getting a permit through.”

However, if you are turned down, Brimley says your first appeal is to the planning and zoning commission. It can make an exception, delay or speed up the process. Next comes the board of adjustment, which can allow special conditions. Finally, if you still don’t have approvals and want to press the issue, you can appeal to the courts.

“I think sign companies settle with much less than they could have,” he says. “A sign is so vital to a business.”

Brimley advises having an employee versed in permit acquisitions.

“Many companies don’t have an in-house permit officer, but have the salesman acquire permits,” he says. When companies allow sales people to get permits, they often aren’t saving the money they think they are by not having a full-time permit-acquiring employee.

“You need someone who has everything in order, who knows everything there is to know about a job. You don’t build a friendship by bluffing your way through a permit process,” he says.

Brimley also suggests not using outside companies that offer permit-acquiring services. Often companies will use these services to work jobs outside the sign company’s home area, which is acceptable for small clients. But for large clients, go to the site.

“There’s much more personal attention when you are there to see the project through,” he says.

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