Holiday shoppers will find it easier to reach their destination, thanks to 23 signs that are being installed at 13 intersections to help direct people seeking any of the town’s six distinct shopping districts.
The public-private “Way-Finding” signage program began in June when the town, on behalf of the town council, approached the West Hartford Chamber of Commerce. The chamber’s economic development committee – led by architects Peter Amara of Amara Associates LLC and Hugh Schweitzer of Clohessy, Harris & Kaiser LLC – "worked tirelessly throughout the summer to identify key intersections in town where improved signage is needed," said Chamber President Marjorie Luke.
Amara sketched more than a half dozen preliminary designs. He wanted something “clean and very simple and visually pleasant – and classy” that emulated the traditional feel of the town. The committee chose signs with an arched dome containing a lamppost icon on top and a color scheme of dark hunter green and golden yellow with white. The header remains constant while the body can expand to include more than one destination name.
“In September the results of the project team’s work was turned over to the town engineering department, where through the efforts of Duane Martin, the coordination of the fabrication of the signs and planning of their installation was completed,” Luke said.
Praising the work of the committee, Rob Rowlson, director of community services for the town, said the partnership saved the town an estimated $25,000 to $30,000.
Doing it “on the cheap” is “a great West Hartford tradition,” Mayor Scott Slifka told a small group who attended a news conference and official unveiling of the signs at town hall Tuesday morning.
Most towns have a downtown shopping center. West Hartford has that on Farmington Avenue and LaSalle Road along with Blue Back Square. It also has five other shopping areas: Park Road, Bishops Corner, Corbins Corner, Elmwood and the Home Design District.
Schweitzer called the project’s completion “a big deal,” saying that it’s difficult to make public-private partnership projects successful, but that this one was easy because of the way the town helped.
The project “came from the bottom up,” Slifka said. “The role of government and the chamber of commerce was to listen” and then to ask, “How can we help?”
Luke said the signs are “critically important” and that the need for them had been “expressed to us many times by our local business owners.”
Project committee member Kevin Cunningham, president of Cunningham Supply Inc. on Oakwood Avenue, is pleased that the visitor-friendly signs will point people toward the Home Design District of which he is a part. He thanked the town and the chamber for listening to businesses that said their customers were having difficulty finding them.
“My heart beats fast,” said committee member Richard Patrissi of Patrissi Nursery Center Inc. and vice president of the Park Road Association. “We are so excited about what we have” on Park Road, and happy that the signs will help residents and visitors find their way to the neighborhood.
West Hartford is a destination with six distinct business districts, Slifka said. While the center is the most known, “the others are just as successful” and are not trying to replicate West Hartford Center.
“West Hartford has it all and has it in different sized markets” making for “so many choices,” he said.
Six of the signs had been installed as of Tuesday morning. All will be up by next week.
The project was Phase I (“Getting People from Highways to Business Districts”) of what could have up to four additional phases, Luke said. Feedback will determine the next step.
