Rightly or wrongly, outlet malls have been saddled with a stigma. The term evokes images of Old Aunt Edie elbowing her way through fellow shoppers as she stocks up on cheap clothes or shoes before venturing over the to the buffet restaurant or early-bird special.
Today, however, the owners of such properties understand they must appeal to more diverse (and upwardly mobile) demographics to maintain positive balance sheets. Management at Craig Realty Group, which operates 18 outlet-shopping centers across the U.S., wisely embraced signage as an effective branding tool for the Outlets at Traverse Mountain, an upscale development that recently opened in Lehi, UT.
Craig enlisted studio PROGETTI (Santa Barbara, CA) to design the monument sign as part of a broad, environmental-graphic program. The expansive, fieldstone base and color palette are indicative of the region’s mountainous environs. Studio Progetti’s project design Louis Troiani and modeler Eduardo Bell collaborated on the rendering. Orem, UT-based Pria Inc. served as the job’s masonry contractor.
Walton Signage (San Antonio, TX) built the sign program. The shop adapted the concept drawing for production using SA Intl.’s FlexiSign® 8 and Adobe® Illustrator®.
Alisa Hernandez, the shop’s business-development director, described Walton’s site-survey process: “We looked at soil-condition reports, landscape plans, electrical-installation plans, and overhead-power-line placements. We develop our engineering plans, and work with the customer’s survey-engineering firm to mark the location, grade and slope of the ground, and review any environmental issues.”
Because of the stones’ size and weight, and the monument’s slope – which was requested by the architect – Walton had to increase the framing and tube structure’s size and increase the foundation size to meet engineering requirements. The shop also provided water and electrical resources required for the masonry contractor to complete their work. Because the installation was completed in cold, sometimes snowy weather, Walton had to install tents over the signs to ensure a successful installation of stone and mortar.
Walton fabricated the aluminum sign and cabinet on the shop’s CLN of South Florida Series 300 6 x 12-ft. CNC router. The components were mechanically fastened to 6061 aluminum alloy, and the apparatus was anchored to concrete with Simpson SET-XP epoxy-adhesive anchors.
LEDs provided backlighting for the channel letters. LFA Design, which handled the program’s overall lighting design, specified a color-changing GE Tetra RGB LED module from California Lighting System.