ASU’s attempt to obtain a variance for its comprehensive signage plan was put on hold Thursday as the zoning-adjustment hearing officer tabled the decision for a future date.
ASU’s plan has prompted concerns that one of its proposals could negatively impact students living in the downtown residence halls, located on First and Taylor streets.
Applicant Giovanni Melendez of signage company Bluemedia plans to place these signs on a total of seven ASU-affiliated buildings, including a 540-square-foot LED sign facing Taylor Place on the law-school building being constructed next door.
Eight of these signs will be standard adhesive vinyl and one will be a banner, but the most controversial is the LED sign for the law school, the Arizona Center for Law and Society.
“The law school is a split building. Though [the sign] is external to the air, it is internal to the space. It is surrounded on all four sides,” said Thomas Williams, the law school’s assistant dean for academic affairs and the institution.
Williams also said that the city of Phoenix requires the new construction to be engaging not only to students, but to the general public as well.
“It will engage the general public when they come into our space,” he said.
According to the City of Phoenix Planning and Development Department, there are four conditions that need to be met to grant variance: there are special circumstances applying to the building which do not apply to others in the same zone; those circumstances were not self-imposed by the property owner; the variance is necessary for the preservation and enjoyment of substantial property rights; and the variance will not be materially detrimental to the public.
When asked about the sign’s effect on residents of Taylor Place, Williams said that while it will be possible for those living on higher floors to see light coming from the sign, it will not shine directly into Taylor Place and would be turned off at 10 p.m. each night to avoid disturbances.
Designer Lindsay Kinkade made it a point to state that the signs will not all go up at once.
“We will only ever do two signs at a time,” she said.
She described the process as “slow, careful pacing.” Kinkade further explained that the first two that would be put in place are those that you see when you first get off the campus light-rail stops.
“We’re doing this for educational purposes,” Williams said. “I think it should be granted on those conditions.”
Contact the reporter at alicia.moser@asu.edu.
