A sign of times: Public process begins for new Welcome to Edmonds sign

The examples of signs at the meeting sparked lively discussion among attendees, and numerous comments were received.

Citizens gathered in the Edmonds Library Plaza Room on Thursday evening to give their input and ideas about what should replace the badly deteriorated “Welcome to Edmonds” sign on SR 104. In place for the past four decades, the sign marks the gateway to Edmonds, and is a familiar sight to generations of ferry riders, visitors and residents. 

“The plan to replace the gateway sign has been in the works for several years,” said Carrie Hite, Edmonds Director of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services. “Sadly it has deteriorated beyond repair, and in July of this year we presented a proposal to council to replace it. Subsequent discussion underscored that the sign is near and dear to the hearts of many, and the city decided to take a pause and let the community provide input and help shape what our gateway sign should be, how it should look, and the manner in which it would reflect our town. (See My Edmonds News coverage here)

Thursday night’s meeting, which drew about 25 people, was the beginning of the public process to get that input, Hite added. “We’re not here to make a decision about what the sign should be, but rather to look at a broad cross section of gateway signs from other towns and cities to generate ideas that might work for us,” she said. “What colors do you like? What themes and fonts? Do you want images? What should be the overall look and feel?”

Sign advocate and Edmonds business owner Mike McMurray discusses design ideas with lead designer Clayton Moss.

Hite went on to explain that all input from the meeting will used by lead designer Clayton Moss to come up with a range of alternatives that embody what people say they want.  These alternatives will be presented in a second public meeting in January for further discussion and refinement. Hite stressed that the process is open, and invites other artists to bring designs to the January meeting as well.

“All my past design projects have involved one or a few clients,” said Moss. “But on this project the whole town is my client. This sign needs to reflect our core values, and should express what our citizens feel Edmonds is, what it wants to be, and how our identity can be expressed in the sign that sits at our front door.”

Moss then gave a short “show and tell” presentation showing examples of gateway signs currently in use in other towns and cities across the U.S. For sake of clarity, he grouped them into five general categories: traditional post and panel; monumental traditional; monumental free form; vertical sculptural and major gateway (these are shown in the images accompanying this article). He thumbnailed the advantages, disadvantages and costs of each, and stressed that the broad categories are not mutually exclusive, and that elements from each could be mixed and matched.

This map indicates other gateways to Edmonds to consider for future signage.

“We’re not asking you to choose a sign tonight,” concluded Hite. “Rather we want you to examine the examples and tell us what you’re drawn to, what turns you off, what elements you’d like to see in our SR 104 gateway sign. And while our focus tonight is the SR 104 sign, we’d also like you to look at the map on the wall with the other gateways marked and think about what you’d like to see there.”

According to Hite, all input received at this session will be used to generate an array of alternative designs for consideration at the next meeting in January, where they will be further narrowed and refined. The third meeting in February will be devoted to examining these second-phase alternatives, with the goal of choosing a preferred alternative. Hite promised a press release in the next few days with dates, times and locations for these next meetings.

— Story and photos by Larry Vogel

  1. The article references a map that shows the locations of the “other gateways” that would be considered for welcome signage. It would be helpful to also see that map for full understanding of how many signs and locations are in consideration.

  2. I’m very glad this meeting occurred ~ yet how was it promoted? I wrote a letter to the council, mayor and Mike a few weeks back and received no notification. I rarely miss this publication (although I did yesterday), and did not see a notice here.
    If they want public community input, let’s be sure to actually let let the community know.

    1. Annie, I don’t know if you subscribe to My Edmonds News, but if you do, there’s an option to get daily emails with local news highlights, announcements, etc. I saw this meeting mentioned in a couple of the emails. In fact, the emails have clued me in to a lot of things, and I find them very helpful. 🙂

      1. Adding to what Michelle said, there is a box on the upper right of the home page where you can sign up for our daily email newsletter, and it comes direct to your inbox each morning.

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