Northwood News ♦ February 2005

Fancy $26K Art Deco Signs Announce Four Corners

By Jacquie Bokow

I’m sure we’ve all noticed the new “Four Corners” signs that were installed on the medians where University Blvd. splits on either side of Colesville Rd.  They are Art Deco in style and light up at night.

After a considerable number of phone calls, I finally was put in touch with Lester Brantner with the commercial revitalization section at the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs who was in charge of getting the signs installed.  Brantner said the process was begun about three years ago by his boss.

Neon artist Craig Kraft of Kraft Studios in Washington, D.C., was chosen to design the community gateway signs, which were then fabricated by Triangle Signs in northern Baltimore.  Installation was completed last spring during the cicada emergence.  The SHA (since the signs are on a state road right-of-way) finished the landscaping around the signs during the summer.

“The signs cost about $26,000 each,” said Brantner, because of their complicated, lighted design (including “conduit and electrical” connections) and state regulations.  Because the signs are along a state road, they had to be designed to crush upon impact and break away from their bases if hit by a vehicle, causing “little damage to the car but essentially destroying the sign,” he said.

Fifteen fluorescent light fixtures provide internal illumination and the 12-foot-wide, six-foot high signs are made from heavy-gauge aluminum painted with a polyurethane finish, “like an automobile surface,” said Brantner.  The multistepped, reinforced concrete base protrudes 12 inches above ground, with two feet underground.  An attached photocell turns on the sign only when it’s dark.

“The signs are unusual,” said Brantner, “from the standpoint of their Art Deco design.”

“They are very unusual,” agreed Kraft, “but quite appropriate.  We did a lot of planning to integrate them into the area.”   ■