Multistory ads and possibly a giant football will again decorate downtown in January for the College Football Playoff as the event organizing committee received its signage permit from the city on Thursday.
No mock-ups were available because the plan has not been completed yet. They will be released to the public around mid-November according to Devney Preuss, vice president of the activation and special events department of the Arizona Organizing Committee.
The plan was to include temporary signage such as super graphics on buildings, oversized game elements, banners, wayfinding signage, sponsored components and possibly the large football that were present in downtown during Super Bowl Central earlier this year.
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The current event plan includes city property and will extend from CityScape to Collier Center between Washington and Jefferson streets. First and Second streets will be closed for pedestrian traffic. The organizing committee is also looking to close Third Street between Monroe and Washington streets.
Mike Widener, the zoning adjustment hearing officer, said that things needed to be kept away from the roads so that pedestrians would not jump into the street and get hit by cars.
“Don’t put something too close to a curb that a person who is a knucklehead, either because they are temporarily intoxicated or they are just high on life, jumps out into the street, and says ‘This will make a great picture,’ then boom,” Widener said.
Preuss reassured Widener that there would be pedestrian-friendly perimeters to keep people safe during their visit to Phoenix in January.
After the college football championship is over, Preuss said that all of the temporary signage would be taken down within seven days.
The Skyline Lofts mixed-use apartment building on Fourth and Fillmore streets was also granted a permit for a comprehensive signage plan that will advertise the complex’s retail, office and multi-family living components.
Erin Andres, the city’s sign supervisor, said the plan should fit in well with the development.
“Whenever you mix uses together, sometimes the signage that goes with that can get a little squirrelly, so it’s good to have something that unifies this, especially because this takes up a whole city block,” Andres said.
Contact the reporter at Kmlane5@asu.edu.
