Union Plaza
Water Street Partners is a real estate investment firm based in Excelsior, MN. They had acquired the Union Plaza building in the North Loop of Minneapolis in 2019 and were looking to make some signage updates to the interior of the building as well as add a monument sign to the exterior of the building for tenant and building identification.
The Interior
The first thing Water Street Partners had Spectrum take a look at was the interior signage. They were looking for an updated look to the ADA suite signs for the tenants in the building.
We created concepts using different laminates based on the interior finishes of the building. The signs use a blackened steel and brushed silver laminate as the background and frosted acrylic mounted with pucks and standoffs for the tenant logo.
This type of sign is required to be ADA compliant so the brushed silver portion of the sign has the suite number of each tenant in raised tactile copy with raised braille. The tenant logos are applied vinyl graphics.
The Exterior
After working through the interior of the building, Water Street reconnected with us about adding a new monument sign for building and tenant identification. They didn't have any type of identification to landmark the building or it's entrance.
The challenge was there was very little area to work with. The building is in close proximity to the streets and surrounding buildings leaving little room for a sign. There was a small landscaped area on the West side of the building that presented the only opportunity for placement.
We designed concepts for a new monument sign following city code and Historical Preservation Commission's parameters.
Features of the new monument sign
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Poured concrete base
- Flat cut aluminum building name
- Die cut address numbers with logo
- Tenant ID panels in LED illuminated cabinet with divider bars
The End Result
The Spectrum team worked closely with Water Street Partners throughout the design process and after approvals to gather all tenant names, collect all the necessary permits and HPC application and kept the customer up to date on installation details to ensure there were no surprises.
