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Revitalizing the Riviera

A Palm Springs landmark shines with new signage and graphics.

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Dating back to the heydays of Greta Garbo and Clark Gable, Palm Springs has long been a chic destination for the Hollywood set and those seeking glimpses of big-screen celebrities. In 1959, Irwin Schuman opened the Riviera there, and it soon became a staple destination for Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and their Rat Pack cronies.

Through the ’60s and ‘70s, the Riviera remained a popular tourist destination, thanks to its signature pools and unique design, and the hotel’s grand ballroom hosted performances by Sinatra, Bob Hope, Raquel Welch and others. However, as tastes and trends shifted – and Palm Springs continued to explode with newer, more au courant properties – the Riviera gradually lost its luster.

In 2006, Noble House Hotels & Resorts purchased the property and gradually began restoring the Riviera to its original glory. In late 2008, the hotelier unveiled a luxurious property with more than 600 guest rooms and suites. To create retro-cool signage that reinvigorated the Riviera’s legend, Noble House hired Ribbit Inc. (Hartsdale, NY), with whom it’s partnered for several projects, to execute a design/build for the signage and environmental graphics.

In addition to developing an iconic point-of-entry sign, the ambitious project for the Riviera’s sprawling, 24-acre property included signage for its eight guest buildings, ballroom and Circa 59 restaurant, among other amenities. Juan Carlos Casas, Ribbit’s president, noted that his team took inspiration from the logo typography and the area’s aesthetic to coordinate graphics and color palette with DeLaRossa Studios’ interior décor. He said, “Our goal was to create a strong identity and sign program that would align with history and local nostalgia interpreted in a more modern approach.”

The Riviera’s signature monument comprises a welded, sculptural frame and mounting plates made from 0.125-in.-thick aluminum and coated with Matthews acrylic-polyurethane paint; aluminum-return channel letters covered with white, ¼-in.-thick, acrylic faces and illuminated with white LEDs; and the star logo, which Ribbit fabricated from perforated metal and illuminated with GE Lumination’s Tetra LEDs and coated with metallic, silver-blue, acrylic-polyurethane paint. To create cleaner strokes, Ribbit used metal retainers instead of plastic trim.

A 14-in.-deep, fabricated-aluminum arc connects the star to the monument sign’s body via internal, welded, aluminum plates. Ribbit stencil-cut the secondary text with translucent, acrylic, LED-lit inserts.

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The ballroom and conference-room, entry-ID reprises a miniature version of the entry sign’s iconic star, which sits atop a welded, 2-in.-thick, square tubing frame and a 5½-in.-thick, aluminum sign cabinet that features a stencil-cut face, acrylic backing and internal, LED illumination.

Wall-mounted medallions that identify the conference center comprise 0.125-in.-thick, bronze plates with a medium-oxidation finish and engraved and gold-filled graphics. To mark the individual buildings, which are identified numerically, Ribbit created wall-mounted, miniature, unlit versions of the entry icon.
 

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