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Enjoy Yourself: Ybor City

A gallery of this unique Tampa neighborhood’s signage

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As scheduling demands intensify amidst the Information Age, coupled with the budgetary constraints of economically uncertain times, the entertainment and recreation dollar has tightened for most family and corporate-travel budgets. Therefore, resorts, clubs and other entertainment-related entities fiercely compete for a limited pool of would-be customers’ discretionary money. And, economic-development organizations, and convention and visitors’ bureaus, must promote aggressively to uphold their region’s or city’s “brand recognition.”

Consequently, decisionmakers for these properties and organizations must appear progressive and trendy. In some cities, neighborhoods and designated areas tailor their economic growth toward attracting tourists and corporate travelers.

Naturally, signage plays an integral role. Additionally, sports arenas and other venues prominently feature advertising signage to attract thousands, if not millions, of viewers annually. Whether it’s a program for a new restaurant or store, an environmental-graphics program for a casino or updated stadia advertising, signage should loom as a primary consideration for branding new or renovated properties. In tandem, signmakers should recognize this importance and make prompt service a primary goal. After all, such large-scale properties usually entail repeat business for conscientious signshops.

This diverse gallery shows how well-executed signage can enhance the ambience – and, likely, the ultimate profitability – of establishments geared towards spare-time diversions.

Y Beautiful Ybor

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Ybor City, also known as Florida’s Latin Quarter, credits its name to Vicente Martinez Ybor, a Cuban cigarmaker who helped found the town in the 1880s as a U.S. center for stogie production. Its early population principally comprised an influx of Spanish, Cuban and Italian immigrants who populated the factories. The city grew steadily until the Depression, when economic troubles severely impacted cigarmakers and the local economy. The exodus accelerated throughout World War II, as the few remaining cigarmakers automated their plants, which required still fewer workers. Soon, the city’s mass-production cigar industry virtually evaporated. Today, a handful of boutique cigarmakers have revived the local tradition.

The town declined until the 1980s, when artists in search of inexpensive and inspiring studio space catalyzed the community’s recovery. Throughout the 1990s, entrepreneurs converted many of Ybor City’s long-dormant cigar factories along 7th Avenue, the neighborhood’s primary artery, into bars, restaurants and clubs. Throughout the past decade, the city of Tampa and the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce have spurred further economic development. Young professionals were lured by Ybor City’s fast pace and its abundance of newly built apartments and condominiums.

Of course, with rapid growth came the need for new signage and codes to accommodate the swelling population. Vince Pardo, president of the Ybor City Development Corp. (YCDC), a non-profit organization that promotes the local business community, said signage became a top priority.

“We transformed from a sleepy neighborhood into a destination very quickly,” he said. “We needed to identify our community’s amenities and help new residents and tourists navigate Ybor City. Signage plays a key role for us.”

In 1999, the city hired Shaughnessy Hart to devise a signage master plan that features an iconic gateway element, identification signage for several newly constructed parking garages, directional signage for the Ybor Museum, the Saturday market and other important destinations, and street markers. The signs comprise reflective-vinyl-clad aluminum encased with decorative, metal frames.

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Stanley Industries produced the prototype, and Tampa’s municipal signshop has fabricated subsequent signage. According to YCDC employee Brenda Thrower, the city has incorporated the sign program’s original color palette into marketing brochures, billboards and other collateral promotional materials.

“With the harsh effects of Florida weather and occasional damage from vehicles or revelers, the signs do require periodic changeovers,” Thrower said.

Commercial signage within Ybor City’s historic district must pass muster with the Barrio Latino Commission, a local-government entity that enforces architectural and signage building codes. The commission levies relatively strict requirements for square footage – especially for protruding storefront signage – and prefers signage that conforms to the historic district’s aesthetics. However, Ybor City’s residents and business owners seemingly obey the rules and embrace the neighborhood’s image.

M & J Wilkow, a Chicago-based real-estate developer, owns Centro Ybor, an Ybor City complex that comprises a 20-screen Muvico movie theater and various boutique retailers and upscale restaurants. It resides on the site of the former Centro Espanol, where Spanish-speaking residents paid dues in exchange for medical care, a library and other services during Ybor City’s cigar-making heyday.

However, Centro Ybor’s landmark sign, which features an elegant, Latin-style typeface – writ in 6-ft.-tall channel letters — and an 18-ft.-long depiction of an elegant Latin senorita, had lost some of its luster. Florida sun, compounded by southern exposure, had severely faded the coated-acrylic signface, and its neon tubing often required replacement.

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Carl Dal Cerro, Centro Ybor’s director of operations, enlisted Tampa-based Electric Sign Co. to provide a new, more vibrant signface. According to Bob Smith, Electric’s general manager, the shop retrofitted the signface with LEDs, which required the approval from Ron Vila, the Barrio Latino’s historic-preservation specialist. Mark Brenchley, the city of Tampa’s construction-services division site supervisor, also had input for the project. Smith knew the most straightforward way to win the project’s green light.

“I created a sample letter, which we illuminated half with neon tubing and half with LEDs,” he said. “I turned on both halves, and Vila was persuaded that LEDs could offer terrific luminescence and significant energy conservation. The [Barrio Latino] has its standards, but if you’re upfront and give strong reasons for variances, they’re usually pretty amenable.”

Electric Sign Co. outfitted the cabinet with plastic-enveloped, red SloanLED modules, and subbed the vinyl fabrication to Cris Britt’s Brandon, FL-based Signs Now franchise. She produced the graphics using 3M Graphics Market Center Controltac film, which she output on a Roland DGA Corporation 54-in. VersaCamm printer/plotter.

Installation proved time-consuming because of the signs’ close proximity to the building’s roofline and the Muvico sign. Electric Sign Co.’s team patiently maneuvered the components into place with the shop’s 85-ft.-reach Elliott lift truck.

Of course, a newer, brighter signface wasn’t the only benefit. Smith said the retrofitted sign would save M & J Wilkow approximately $5,000 annually in energy costs.

Within the Centro Ybor campus, Bill Haines opened Teatro on 7th, an eatery that serves what he terms “American fusion cuisine.” He chose to rehab the property’s existing signface, largely because its size was grandfathered, but out of compliance with current Barrio Latino codes.

Haines hired Tampa’s Dixie Neon Co. to update the sign. Jim Scott, the shop’s production manager, said Dixie stripped and recoated the sign’s routed-metal face with Matthews acrylic-polyurethane paint and outfitted the neon border with new 9000V Transco transformers and gold Voltarc tubing.

Locating within the festive Ybor City area inspired a relatively buttoned-up business to contribute to the local flair. Wilson Miller, a Naples, FL-based, interdisciplinary design, engineering and planning firm, hired SignStar (Tampa) to create a rooftop sign for its Ybor City office. Because they planned to replace a sign in the 112-year-old building from the previous tenant, the Ybor City Brewing Co. (initially, the facility served as a cigar factory), the proposal required reviews from the Barrio Latino and the Hillsborough County Preservation Society.

“Ybor City had a longstanding tradition of rooftop channel letters, and we convinced local officials this would be an asset to the community,” Mike Chawk, SignStar’s project manager, said. “Wilson Miller’s planers and government-relations staff pursued the required regulatory changes and helped us obtain the required permits.”

However, the 5-ft.-tall letters required wider letter strokes and greater roofline support. First, Wilson Miller hired a contractor to refurbish and waterproof the roof, which had sustained damage from recent hurricanes. After they finished, Signstar’s installers built in additional, supportive sub-framing above and below the roofline to bolster the sign against future heavy winds.

The shop fabricated a two-section raceway and fabricated 434 linear ft. of neon with white EGL Co. Inc. tubing and 14 Advance electronic transformers. SignStar constructed the sign with 4-in.-deep, 0.063-in.-thick returns and 0.125-in.-deep backs.

To complement the rooftop sign, the company also built two, 4 x 6-ft. monument signs with flat, cut-out, aluminum letters and acrylic polyurethane paint, and two, 2 x 2-ft. directional panels.

Here are links to more entertaining projects in the gallery:

Great American Ball ParkLucas Oil StadiumSan Diego Gas Lamp DistrictM ResortCiti Field

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