ARCHIVE: Category Archive for: Metro Sign

Complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which first became the law of the land in 1991, has made incalculable improvements in the lives of countless people. More recently revised in 2010 and made mandatory as of March 15, 2012 for virtually all new construction and renovations, the ADA has resulted in a system of “best practices” that make it possible for disabled persons to access and enjoy an extremely wide range of public and private built environments. Many people think the ADA just requires Braille on certain signs, but it’s considerably more comprehensive than that. Compliance can impact a great many of your project’s signage (and design/construction) specifications. Unfortunately, the ADA’s requirements are sometimes ambiguous. That’s one reason Metro Sign

It’s hard to drive or walk far in today’s built-up areas without encountering a pylon sign, sometimes called a pole sign or a roadside sign. As the name implies, this is single- or double-sided signage supported above ground level on some kind of slim vertical support. Along highways, pylon signage can tower 200 feet or even higher. In urban areas, they’re likely to top out at 30 feet or so, the better to be visible to foot traffic and to link the sign’s messaging more closely to a particular piece of real estate. The pylon sign itself usually consists of an illuminated sign cabinet supported by one or two unembellished poles, which may be square, round, or of an interesting

OK. We admit it: we love signs and signage. It’s fascinating. We can’t get enough. And we love to learn more about technology, industry developments, and basically anything that has anything to do with signs. That’s why we’re fascinated by the following stories (and we hope you are too): “Judge Rules … Signage Rules … Unconstitutional” It’s far away, but Saugutuck, MI, is the location where a county judge recently decided that restrictions on signage are unconstitutional! Basically, a couple of homeowners posted signs declaring their opinions on a very large number of matters (see accompanying photo). Neighbors objected, and the case found its way to court. The result? Now there’s a new precedent that gives property owners virtually unlimited

Wearing three different hats at work is a great way to insure your days are always busy. But three hats aren’t really enough to cover all the work that Sue Curran does at Metro Sign and Awning. A typical day can involve her in anything and everything from setting up and networking a new computer to invoicing vendors, generating statements for customers, and handling payments, in addition to the never-ending Human Resources work that goes with that part of her title. But her main priority, she says, is “making sure everyone is feeling good about their job, and about working at Metro.” To that end, Sue tries to maintain a schedule of what she calls “extracurricular activities.” These can lead

Monument signs have a great look: solid, substantial, historic, even permanent. Such three-dimension constructions have a long history, having been made for generations from stone, earth, and other long-lasting materials, and more recently from semi-permanent materials such as concrete, stucco, and brick. But you’d be surprised to learn how easily we can achieve that look with lightweight, low-cost materials and processes. Today, monument signs can be fabricated “to order” from man-made materials that give that permanent look while being lighter, easier, and cheaper to fabricate, transport, and install. Modern Materials; Venerable Look These modern monuments often begin with a solid core of molded expanded polystyrene or something similar, bonded onto one or more vertical PVC pipes that will later provide

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night….” That’s the legendary inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City. But lately we’ve been thinking of carving those same words into the wall of our own fabrication facility, because our guys have been warriors when it comes to installing signage under difficult or even adverse conditions for our customers. For example, the photo accompanying this post shows Glenn Stetzler up in the cherry picker in the middle of some exterior installation work at Crossings. It’s a shopping plaza managed by KeyPoint Partners, who asked us to do extensive work, including building signage, main entrance identity signage, and exterior way-finding signage. We have faced a lot of

In addition to working with individual businesses to handle their signage needs – inside and out – Metro Sign & Awning also offers Design/Build turnkey services for developers. While we’ve done our share in North America (from Canada to Puerto Rico and all over the US) we’re very excited about some of the projects we’ve completed in Boston – including Waterside Place, North Point Residential, One North of Boston and The Victor. Developers tell us they like working with Metro Sign & Awning because there’s no middleman: From initial concept design discussions to sign schedules, permitting, and all the way through to installation, Metro is capable of handling the entire signage process. West Coast Partnership Comes to Boston With hundreds

Signs may be in her blood. Elena started her career managing national accounts at a small sign company in Haverhill, MA, before moving to another sign company in Hudson, NH. Polishing her skills and learning the business, she pined for an opportunity to combine national accounts marketing with business development and trade show action. Just about the time she began to feel confined, she learned of an opportunity at Metro Sign and Awning, and leaped at it. It was a perfect fit. Elena was looking to flex her marketing muscles, and Metro Sign was looking to grow. “We have great people in all the right positions, ” she explains, “and I have all the tools to create my own success.

Our Metro Sign and Awning install crew has been working diligently this week with Suffolk Construction at The Beverly Depot. We’ve almost finished installing the new “T” Logo and the facility’s way-finding signs. Thanks for the opportunity to service another MBTA and Suffolk Project; we appreciate your valued partnership. The new parking facility at the Beverly station is slated to open for public use on Saturday, August 3rd, 2014. It will take another couple of months to finish a similar facility at the Salem station, probably not opening until October according to the Salem News. Together, the two new garages will allow commuters to park more than 1,200 vehicles, which will greatly ease the current parking crunch in those locations.

How Many Kinds of Signs Can You Name? There are more than 206 bones in the human body, each one with its own name, from cranial bones to vertebrae, and from the vomer to the clavicle. That’s more bones than types of signage, but our industry nevertheless can marshal quite a line-up of different ways to convey messages to people. How many different types of signs can you name? Below are some photos, with a link that lets you see what that type of sign is called. Sign Type 1: This high-profile sign is the kind you’ll see outside many developments, such as shopping centers, highway service establishments, or multi-tenant commercial parks. Depending on circumstances and visual