A Big Sign Story

As big gigantic signs go, most seem to show up either in Times Square or along the Las Vegas Strip. But of late, in the vastness between them, is a giant of a sign, springing up from the foothills of the Rockies. It’s pretty atypical in this part of the West, which makes this sign all the more spectacular, nestled at the base of what appears at first glance to be a quiet humble hillside. But on second glance, a traveler will realize the scenery is flashing by at 75 miles an hour. And the traveler will also notice that it’s not really so bucolic in this growing community, where six lanes of Interstate 25 link Denver to the north and Colorado Springs to the south.

The original sign, with billboard-size changeable digital graphics panels, still towers above the massive foundation of the new sign. With the earthen base nearing completion, the 48” base pipes are embedded in the concrete columns. (Tom Sharp, Gordon Sign)

The sign announces in no uncertain terms, that the Outlets at Castle Rock, which can be accessed by getting off the freeway at the next exit, is open for business.

But why did Steve Craig of Craig Realty Group, the owner and operator of the property, feel the need for a new and bigger sign that included a two-sided electronic message board? There was, after all, an existing sign that stood over 40 feet tall.

One reason was that the existing sign wasn’t visible to motorists traveling north on Interstate 25 where the median separating north and southbound lanes is significant. The new sign is now tall enough to be visible to those northbound motorists. Craig also reasoned that as few as seven additional customers visiting the center each day—because of the sign—would make a huge impact on the success of the business. And, he reasoned, the possibility of that happening would become even more realistic with the added visibility for northbound traffic.

But another reason is the new sign not only advertises the Outlets, but also serves as a community bulletin board, displaying service announcements and information about local events, as well as advertising and attracting travelers to other businesses in the nearby downtown area.

In other words, this gigantic sign was perceived to be something that could really help the local economy.

Earthwork continues as the first of the steel pipes is stacked onto the base and welded in place. Steel is “flown” into place as welding continues. Another tier of steel pipe is stacked and the concrete pad is placed. The sign structure now has a “floor”. (Tom Sharp, Gordon Sign)

Building-Sized Sign

San Diego-based Ultrasigns is a sign fabricator that has provided signage for a number of properties that Craig Realty Group owns and manages, including the Outlets at Castle Rock.

In April, Gus and John Hadaya, the owners of Ultrasigns, approached Denver-based Gordon Sign with the understatement of the year: they claimed to have a sign project for them to look at that involved “substantial installation challenges.”

The base section of the new sign is in place. (Tom Sharp, Gordon Sign)

“We looked at the plans, and it was a building, basically,” says Gordon’s Harry Grass, “with floors, stairs, HVAC systems, electrical systems, and so forth. It’s interesting to build a sign like you would build a building.”

Essentially, the plan was that Ultrasigns would fabricate and ship the sign components, but needed a local sign company to coordinate the process and provide the on-site assembly.

“In order to meet the greatest challenge of completing the project in the 16 weeks before the holiday shopping season that would begin after Thanksgiving, all the various parties had to coordinate their activities,” Hadaya says.

The cast of characters included the architect, sign designer, structural engineer, owner, Gordon Sign, Ultrasigns, Gold Mine Property Services, the on-site general contractor, various subcontractors to the general contractor such as electrical, plumbing and HVAC contractors, and Multimedia LED, the manufacturer of the electronic reader board. And other subcontractors were also involved such as the ready-mixed concrete providers, concrete pumping providers, drill rig operators—all of whom were required to meet or exceed the demanding standards of an independent project inspector.

Craig Realty Group took care of the building and sign permits, ensuring compliance with all local zoning, sign codes and transportation department regulations. The general contractor took care of the groundwork for the base of the sign, which included the placement of at least 17 feet of compacted soil surrounded by a masonry retaining wall structure built to stabilize the hillside and accommodate the height difference between the parking lot and the upper elevations of the highway right-of-way.

Support sections for the LED panels start arriving and are being unloaded. Progress continues as the all-steel support framing for the LED panels are stacked and the exterior aluminum skin and cladding is installed at the base. The new sign competes with the original one for attention. The last tier of support sections for the LED panels is placed. (Tom Sharp, Gordon Sign)

“When you build a sign, say a shopping center sign, one of the first things you do is drill and pour caissons for the uprights, which is what was done on this sign, just on a huge scale,” Grass says.

The steel was not available in Colorado, so it was shipped to the site from Texas, another small task that Gordon Sign had to arrange and coordinate, allowing for a three-week lead time.

When it did arrive on site, there was a specific methodology that had to be followed. The process called for introducing a slurry of water and polymers to keep the hole from caving in during the drilling process. Holes for both pylons were drilled to a total depth of about 29 feet, or about 17 feet below the bottom of the compacted soil. Once the drilling was completed and the steel base placed, the hole was filled from the bottom up with concrete, displacing the slurry.

The LED sign nears completion; the existing sign in the forefront is now dwarfed by the new one and will soon be dismantled and removed for installation elsewhere on the property. (Tom Sharp, Gordon Sign)

(Right) A look inside the completed sign structure. (Gus Hadaya, Ultrasigns)

Normally Speaking: Very Serious Engineering

In terms of complexity, the sign is fairly straightforward from outward appearances. From above, it appears to be shaped like a wedge, oriented so that it provides optimal visibility to highway traffic coming from either direction, while providing a robust and stable structure.

The structure is built around two upright pylons upon which all the sections attach and rest.

“If it was a normal-sized sign, you would call them the poles, to which the sign cabinet would be attached,” Grass explains.

The uprights begin with 45" diameter steel pipe sections, then reduce to diameters of three feet and then two feet. All the sections of the steel framework are attached to those upright pylons, which are inside the sign.

One difference from a “normal-sized” sign is that while the pylons are almost four feet in diameter at the base, there is very little tolerance in terms of them being parallel and perfectly straight and perpendicular, even as they rise up more than 50 feet above the base.

“The base of the pylon steel is four feet across, with 3/4" walls,” says Gordon Sign’s Tom Sharp. “The pylons had to be perfectly straight and parallel because if they are not, when you go to put your sections over them, it’s not going to work. And they’re in concrete, so you can’t bend them, or attach a come-along between them to pull them straight.”

Once the two pylon uprights were completed, sections of the superstructure started arriving. Complete sections were too big to be transported to Colorado on a truck, so they were made in smaller wedge-shaped pieces that were then shipped to the site.

“Construction was extremely complicated and totally different from anything else that you see in a regular sign,” says Hadaya. “It’s designed to be about 15 feet wide, but we couldn’t build it that size and transport it from California to Colorado. So we had to cut it in half. It’s re-engineering on the fly while you are building it,” he says, “which is almost impossible to do without losing time.”

Workers preparing to finish up a few punch list items on the new and working sign. The new sign completed and lit; the original sign has been removed and relocated. The channel letters on the top section of the sign are lit with LEDs provided by SloanLED. The letters are designed to be serviced from inside the sign. (Tom Sharp, Gordon Sign)

But not totally impossible.

Hadaya explains that in order to make it possible, it was imperative that the shop drawings were absolutely accurate. The team worked around the clock and kept the flow of information updated in real time for the shop.

“We used a zero-tolerance system during the fabrication due to the fact that the Multimedia frames were manufactured in a separate facility in Corona, Calif.,” Hadaya says. “The frames needed to be perfectly aligned with Ultrasigns’ steel—and we knew there was no room for error.”

The sign sections were split into three units per level for a total of 15 sections. The cabinets were attached to the main supporting beams that consist of 12' x 8' rectangular-shaped frames welded to the vertical pipes, which create a floor for each level.

The sign width and height were beyond the standard transportation sizes, so the signs were broken into 17 sections, some of which were as high as 12.5' x 35'and weighing in excess of 5,000 pounds each.

Once on site, Gordon Sign workers put them together, and using heavy cranes, each pre-fabricated level was “flown” into position, placed over the uprights and secured.

The main part of the sign structure is built in four sections with a fifth section on top that holds the “Outlets at Castle Rock” channel letters.

The Message Medium

The technology for LED electronic displays has come a long way in recent years.

The two-sided display installed at the Outlets at Castle Rock was manufactured by Multimedia LED and is comprised of six sections, three per side.

Each section was shipped separately and for Gordon Sign, installation was a matter of just getting them up and bolting them on. A big challenge was to keep things dry, which sometimes meant tying off “Herculean-sized” tarps.

“We went through a lot to preserve the sanctity of the electronics,” Grass says, “which paid off because on the day they turned it on, it worked.”

The displays are Multimedia’s 20MMB3 model, which features RGB LED clusters spaced 20mm apart and oriented at a pitch of 20.32mm for optimum viewing of 140 degrees from the highway. Overall dimensions of each display are 30 feet across by 34 feet high. Content is uploaded and controlled by Outlets at Castle Rock staff using InfoCaster software.

Multimedia’s 20MMB3 contains 599,040 Nichia LEDs and is capable of displaying 4.4 trillion colors. It was built at Multimedia’s facility in Corona, Calif.

The sign, on the short list of large electronic sign displays in Colorado, was completed in time for the 2011 holiday shopping season.

“Ultrasigns was aware of the ambitious feat ahead, but with newly expanded facilities and personnel readily available, we were ready to tackle the project,” says Hadaya.

For Gordon Sign, the project confirms the company has what it takes to meet the demands posed by this segment of the market.

“There’s an expertise in erecting this type of sign that’s very specific,” Grass says. “There is a lot to know and a lot to consider.”

Thanks to:

Harry Grass, Director of Sales  and Marketing, Gordon Sign

Tom Sharp, Account Executive,  Gordon Sign

Gus Hadaya and John Hadaya,  Owners of Ultrasigns

ghadaya

February 15, 2012 5:04 pm

Project: LED Message Sign for Outlets at Castle Rock, Castle Rock, Colo.
Client: Craig Realty Group, Newport Beach, Calif.
Architect: STUDIO Progetti, Archecture & Design Santa Barbara , CA. Louis Troiani 805-563-4460
Sign Design: STUDIO Progetti, Archecture & Design Santa Barbara , CA. Louis Troiani 805-563-4460
Structural Engineering: Structural Technology Consultant , inc. 858-278-2400 San Diego CA.
Sign Fabrication: Ultrasigns, San Diego, Calif.
On-Site Sign Erection/Construction: Gordon Sign Company, Denver, Colo.
Electronic Message Sign Manufacturer: Multimedia LED, Corona, Calif.; New York, N.Y.
General Contractor: Gold Mine property Services, Kevin Faulkner 970-292-8332

duane_1

February 1, 2012 5:10 pm

What an incredible engineering feat and challenge this project was. Structural Technology Consultants (signengineer.com) of San Diego was the licensed structural engineer that designed the custom poles, footings, and cabinet framework discussed in the article. STC worked hand-in-hand with the owner, contractor, and sign builder to develop value engineered solutions over the life of the project. STC has completed a number of similar high profile projects with Craig Realty Group and Ultrasigns.

Duane J. Gee, P.E.

Sign & Digital Graphics

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