City Neon went back to school on a recent project for West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, West Virginia. City Neon has a long relationship with the university as the shop has done work for them in the past; even the owner, as well as some employees, are alumni.
The last time Sign Builder Illustrated covered City Neon (“Serving up Neon,” November 2015), they were fabricating neon signage for a number of Primanti Bros. locations. But don’t be fooled by this shop’s name—beyond neon, they do everything from dimensional signage to monuments to banners.
This particular project called for nine signs: one granite monument, three directional signs, two smaller directional signs, and three signs at the west, north, and east entrances to campus.
City Neon faced two deadlines for this project.
The first gave the shop two months to complete the granite monument and all directional signs so that WVU had wayfinding signage in place before school started.
On the second deadline, City Neon had a month-and-a-half to complete the rest of the entrance signs.
The shop finished both these ahead of schedule—about two weeks after the first deadline.
Granite Monument
For the main entry to campus, WVU wanted to make a big statement, so they chose to go with an eighteen-foot-tall, real granite monument—despite the cost.
The new monument matches the two smaller granite signs already on campus. “This is the first thing you see when you come into Morgantown now,” says Chris Payton Atkins, operations manager at City Neon.
City Neon sourced all of the granite from a local company. They chose a special-colored granite that was black with hints of blue and gold to match the school’s colors. They chose a lighter, tan-colored granite for the school’s flying “WV” at the top of the monument.
The monument also features stud-mounted bronze letters from Gemini.
To install the sign, City Neon created a huge, eighteen-foot concrete form.
The shop dug a footing and installed rebar poles about four to five feet deep in the ground that rise straight up. “We built a form around it, poured the concrete in around the rebar and everything to strengthen it, and then, once it dried, we pulled the forms off, and the granite people attached the granite to it,” says Atkins.
The granite company had pre-drilled holes for the rebar, so the granite fit right over them. The rebar runs all the way up the center of the monument.
To complete the install, a mini excavator and a large crane were used. The shop also had to rent a pump truck, since the concrete had to be poured from eighteen feet in the air. The $1,500 cost for the one yard of concrete and the truck was something City Neon had worked into the cost of their bid.
The shop also ran power for ground floodlights illuminating the monument. (Note: Throughout the WVU project, City Neon often made use of a trencher to run power to different sign locations.)
Directional Signs
WVU wanted all of the lit signs on this project to be as thin as possible while still being able to fit LEDs inside. City Neon accomplished this by using SignComp cabinets.
For the three wayfinding signs, City Neon chose SignComp Series 7 cabinets.
The six rectangular sections of the sign used for directional information are made of white polycarbonate faces with blue Orafol vinyl applied over them. The letters were weeded out of the vinyl so the white polycarbonate showed through in the negative space.
The flying “WV” featured at the top of the cabinet was routed out of aluminum using a ShopSabre CNC router. White polycarbonate with blue Orafol vinyl was then back-mounted to the cut-out. The sign is illuminated with MaxBrite Aladdin LEDs.
To fabricate the stone bases, City Neon attached concrete board to a painted steel angle frame and then attached the stone to the concrete board. City Neon repeated this process on the bases for all of the signs (except the main granite sign).
“It gave us the convenience of doing all of the stonework in our shop in a controlled environment, while also saving time by not having to move from location to location and reset up everything,” says Atkins.
To install the signs, City Neon dug a footing, inserted rebar poles, and poured concrete in.
“Once the footings were dry, we came and set the stone base on top, and we set a sandstone cap on top of the base,” says Atkins. “We had two poles coming out of the base that were welded to the frame the stone is around, and then the sign slid over those poles and was attached on the inside to the poles.”
(Note: A Manitex SkyCrane was used on all of the installs except for the main granite sign.)
Smaller Wayfinding Signs
The other two wayfinding signs were constructed with SignComp Series 3 cabinets.
Since these signs are unlit, City Neon opted to paint them with Matthews Paint rather than use vinyl (since no light needed to be dispersed).
However white cut Orafol vinyl was used for the directional elements along with yellow Orafol vinyl for the flying “WV.”
These signs also sit on a stone base with a sandstone cap, and they were installed in the same way as the three directional signs.
Entrance Signs
The second half of the project required City Neon to complete three entrance signs, which they did using SignComp Series 7 cabinets.
The SignComp cabinet holds the yellow flying “WV” at the top of each sign in place. The “WV” is made of acrylic and wrapped in yellow Orafol vinyl.
The letters on the sign were routed out of the aluminum using the ShopSabre router, and acrylic was back-mounted to show through the negative space. Both the letters and the flying “WV” light up and are illuminated by MaxBrite LEDs.
The rest of the sign was painted blue and yellow with Matthews Paint.
The installation of the signs followed the same procedure as the others, and these three also sit on a stone base with a sandstone cap.
Finishing Touches
Some of the unique challenges City Neon ran into on this job aren’t always a requirement of sign shops—landscaping and electrical work.
In addition to running power to all the signs, City Neon also had to complete the landscaping for all nine signs, which included 250 day lilies and 50 bushes. To accomplish this task, they teamed up with their company’s sister business, a real estate company, and had their landscaping crew come in.
WVU loved the completed signs, and the main granite monument has become a landmark for the surrounding community.
“It was just a really good, marquee project for us,” says Atkins.
By Ashley Bray
Photos: City Neon
