New welcome signs, directional markers and street pole hangers could soon liven up the streets of Christiansburg. Over a year ago, local leaders gave the okay to a design process with a national marketing company that is now showing some dividends.
Tuesday night, those proposals were unveiled during a Christiansburg Town Council work session. The purpose of this effort is to identify the need for updated wayfinding signs throughout the town.
Additionally, town leaders hope to guide travelers to key destinations, including governmental buildings, sports facilities, public parking, trails and parks, the town’s farmer’s market and other points of interest.
According to past presentations, the process and new signage will also establish a universal and cohesive design standard for all the signs within the town.
KMA has done work for some major clients including Disney and have met with local leaders and community members over the past year to assemble a list of signs and possible usages.
Those areas include: gateway, directional and destinations and neighborhood. There would also be signs showing the distances to certain public facilities, like the aquatics and recreation centers.
The neighborhoods would be listed by Downtown, Midtown (near the recreation center), Cambria and Uptown (the NRV Mall and retail area).
Plans also include a digital sign that located at town hall for important announcements and events. Initially two other digital signs were proposed for both the aquatics and recreation centers, but were scaled back to just include the one.
Representatives from KMA said the town could adjust the amount and kind of signs as it moves forward. A preliminary budget lists the entire sign package costing close to $375,000, a one-time expense according to town officials.
One of the unique parts of the proposal is the wording of “Town of Christiansburg” which would be placed on the westward facing side of the Reva Knowles Bridge over Peppers Ferry Road near the New River Mall. Six new “Welcome to Christiansburg” signs are proposed to replace the aging ones that date are at least 20 years old according to town officials.
Memebers of the town council have said repeatedly that the proposal would be more attractive to citizens as well as visitors that might come to the community.
Another unique part of the proposed design incorporates the Huckleberry Trail into each sign. Both the huckleberry nut and its leaves are prominently shown. Metal cutouts allow light to shine through, creating a silhouette of the huckleberries. Similar huckleberries would also be included on the gateway/welcome signs.
Most of the council agreed to proceed with the construction document process. Once that is completed, the overall sign package’s construction bid could be advertised in the next six months with the first sign appearing by the end of 2019.
