Visitor center sign to get upgraded
The Hot Springs Visitor Information Center in Hill Wheatley Plaza will soon feature updated signage along Central Avenue in downtown Hot Springs.
The LED marquee that currently towers over the center will be replaced with a marquee that is updated in both design and technology. The installation, which will be carried out by Ace Sign Co., is slated to begin on July 17 and will be completed by July 22.
Gordon Mahoney, chief operating officer of Visit Hot Springs and overseer of the project, said that he is looking forward to having the updated signage.
“It will have more pop and look better and be more visible than what we have,” he said.
The sign that currently stands by the center was installed in 2001. It has 20-millimeter resolution and looms high over the facility — two aspects that Mahoney said will be changed through the installation of the new sign.
Mahoney explained that the new marquee will be closer to eye-level for pedestrians and drivers, which is in line with modern architectural trends.
“Most modern signs, if you notice now, they’re not 30 feet in the air. They’re lower down,” he said. “You don’t have to crane your neck when you drive by in a car to see them. It’s kind of there.”
The new marquee will begin at ground level and stand 8 feet tall and be 12 feet wide. Mahoney explained that this will not only give the sign’s appearance an updated look, but will also function better in downtown Hot Springs.
“Down Central Avenue, you can’t see it from a distance,”
Mahoney said of the center’s current marquee.
The installed marquee’s resolution will have 10-millimeter resolution, which doubles the resolution quality from that of the current marquee. Mahoney also said that the new marquee, which will meet today’s technological standards better than its predecessor, will be easier to program for graphics.
“The technology is obsolete,” he said of the outgoing marquee. “I can’t get parts for it anymore.”
Mahoney said that with the new 10-millimeter resolution, the displayed graphics will look more appealing at close range. He also said that new graphics will likely be projected through the new marquee.
“To the person walking, it will look good to them at fairly close, as opposed to the person that’s a quarter mile down the road,” he said.
The installation is estimated to cost $130,144.08, plus the cost of permits and taxes. It replaces one of Visit Hot Springs’ three LED marquees in the downtown Hot Springs area.
Mahoney said that the other two LED marquees will hopefully be replaced next year.
“We would like to have them all be matching,” he said.
Mahoney believes that the center’s new marquee will not only please himself, but serve everyone who passes it by better than the marque it is replacing.
“Every time you replace something like that, you have the benefit of the improvements and technology throughout the years,” Mahoney said. “Those alone will be beneficial, I think, to the public.”