Lincolnshire Serious about its Signs

June 29, 2000
Lincolnshire Review
By Jason Meisner

When the monumental sign at Lincolnshire’s new CityPark complex goes up at the corner or Route 21 and Aptakisic Road, it will be 34 feet high and feature a 70-square-foot illuminated message display and several 40-square-foot tenant signs.

At least that’s the plan of the moment.

Over the past several months, design plans have been submitted, rejected, molded, tweaked, resubmitted and changed again, until finally taking their current form. It has been scaled down, blown up, and gone from two-sided to triangular and back to two-sided.

At the Committee of the Whole meeting Monday, trustees agreed that the newest design was a step backward from a former one and directed architects to retool the sign once again — adding a CityPark logo at the top that was included in original plans.

“The CityPark logo is (the developer’s) identity, its the project’s identity,” said Trustee Thomas Deloye. “I don’t think they should be forced to put ‘CityPark’ in the LED display.”

Such is the fate of a sign in Lincolnshire, where strict architectural guidelines and the preferences of board members stand guard against glowing neon displays or grotesquely huge corporate monikers.

In Lincolnshire’s signage regulations, it’s generally “form follows function.” The height and width of letters, the square footage of sign space, the illumination methods and color schemes are all considered. Each guideline is given to the architects as they make their designs.

But the sign guidelines are being put to their biggest test of late as the village develops its downtown, and big chain businesses bring in their own ideas of what is needed to lend visibility to a project.

Changes may seem miniscule, but they ultimately affect the look and feel of Lincolnshire’s business complexes and retail stores. Lincolnshire officials say they must weigh the aesthetics of a sign with its functionality, especially whether it is visible, readable, and attractive.

In the case of CityPark, the major concern has been that motorists passing on Milwaukee Ave. and Aptakisic Road see the sign, but that its proportions don’t dwarf the relatively low-lying buildings of the complex.

“The key is to let the sign do what it’s supposed to do and let the building be the main architecture,” Greenberg told trustees.

There was good news for the developers at Monday’s meeting — most of the monument sign’s base and overall structure is a go with trustees.

The red brick stanchions and dark green steel arches were both met with approval, as was the landscaping surrounding the sign — including a CityPark “logo planter” that will display the development’s insignia in flowers.

Still, for other aspects of the sign it’s back to the drawing board for Scott Greenberg, president of Environmental Community Development, and his team of architects designing the property. The latest final plans are due at the July 10 Village Board meeting.

“I'd rather just get this done tonight,” Greenberg told trustees. But he also let the Board know that their input has helped create a more functional, attractive sign.

The sign has lagged behind the rest of the project in approval partly because the Architectural Review Board has had a full plate, and could not take up the issue at its last meeting, company spokesman Adam Natenshon said.

But Natenshon agreed with Greenberg that the changes have improved the overall quality of the sign, incorporating more of the design and architectural elements of the businesses themselves into its overall style and shape.
Lincolnshire’s board has a history of being tough with signs. In 1997, the village succeeded in toning down the red fiberglass bowl that sits atop most Big Bowl restaurants in the Chicago area.

Detractors said the emblem was garish, but many people worried that nitpicking over a sign could keep Big Bowl, part of a large chain of popular Lettuce Entertain You restaurants, and other attractive businesses out of Lincolnshire.

After much debate, with some trustees labeling the logo as “corny” and “not Lincolnshire,” a compromise was struck: make the bowl 12 percent smaller (down from five feet tall), paint it a more muted red, and recess it farther into the roof.

Last year, developers of the new Walgreen’s going up at the corner of Route 22 and Milwaukee Ave. had to change plans for a large window on the entry tower that featured the familiar mortar and pestle symbol. Mayor Barbara LaPiana described the proposal as “ugly,” and the idea was eventually scrapped for a scaled down sign.

Even McDonald’s was somewhat tamed, changing its famous glowing arches to a small, wooden sign on their restaurant’s facade.

For ECD developers, getting the CityPark monument sign right is just a small, albeit somewhat frustrating, bump in the road.

“So many different people have combined on this project, there are so many hundreds of man hours involved,” Natenshon said. “The sign is just a small part of a very exciting plan.”

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