Overview
Vista 44 is Beacon's new affordable apartment community in downtown Hopkins — designed by UrbanWorks Architecture, built by Shaw-Lundquist — and Dimension Sign engineered and fabricated its entire sign package on a materials-only subcontract: open-face channel letters with exposed red LED neon we ended up cutting and sealing in-house, some 140 braille ADA interior signs, UrbanWorks' facade art panel spelling the site's GPS coordinates across four different metal finishes, and the full parking and traffic package. Every piece shipped with the patterns, templates, wire whips, and instructions the GC's crews needed to set it themselves.
01 / The challenge
The contract sign was value-engineered flat-cut aluminum on the entry canopy — until the owner decided, mid-submittal, that the letters should glow. That meant open-face exposed-neon letters on a canopy where careless fastening can void a roof warranty (we had flagged exactly that risk in our first bid), on a HUD Davis-Bacon project where every check came with certified payroll and a lien waiver. And because Shaw-Lundquist bought materials only, everything had to be engineered to install perfectly without us on site.
02 / Our approach
We rebuilt the sign as 12-inch open-face channel letters — cans and trim painted PPG Black Magic, clear faces to keep bugs and weather out of the glow, red LED neon seated in a CNC-routed acrylic backer, remote power supplies and a night/day switch wired for the electrical contractor. Then the supplier's pre-cut neon arrived and only three of eleven runs fit. Instead of waiting on a re-manufacture, we had raw neon stock and seal-cap kits shipped overnight and cut, capped, and waterproofed every run in-house to our own routing — then burned the whole letterset in on the bench before the courier took it to Hopkins. Around the letters went the rest of the program: the art panel with its welded brushed-aluminum star, orbital-finish arcs, and satin-anodized coordinate letters ('approved as submitted,' per the architect); the ADA package in Iron Ore acrylic with clear braille; and follow-on orders through the fall — leasing signage, added room IDs, and a 15-post MUTCD parking package.
The neon didn't fit. We became the neon shop.
We routed the letter backers from the layout the supplier itself provided — and on assembly day, only three of eleven pre-cut neon runs actually fit, with one piece missing entirely. Some runs didn't even match the supplier's own length callouts. Rather than hold a rush job for a re-manufacture, we had raw stock, seal caps, and glue shipped in, then cut, capped, and waterproofed every run on our own bench to match our routing exactly. The letterset burned in complete before it shipped — and cutting exposed neon to fit in-house has been part of our process ever since.
- Every run recut in-house to our CNC-routed backer
- Sealed and waterproofed cap by cap on the bench
- Full burn-in test before the courier left for Hopkins
- Lesson kept: exposed neon is now cut and sealed in-house, start to finish
On the bench, lit
Scope & features
- Complete signage package for a new affordable apartment community
- Open-face channel letters, exposed red LED neon cut and sealed in-house
- Letter cans and trim painted PPG Black Magic, clear weather faces
- Flat-cut-to-neon upgrade engineered mid-submittal — netting the owner a credit
- ~140 ADA unit, room, stair, and level ID signs with clear Grade 2 braille
- UrbanWorks' facade art panel: welded star, orbital arcs, coordinates in satin anodized
- Canopy mounting engineered to protect the roof warranty — flagged in our first bid
- Materials-only scope: patterns, templates, whips, and instructions with every sign
- Custom clearance bar and full MUTCD parking package on 15 galvanized posts
- HUD Davis-Bacon project — certified payroll and compliance handled in-house
- The GC's next housing development was priced with Vista 44 named as its baseline spec
Materials
- ⅛" non-glare acrylic ADA · clear braille
- Open-face channel letters · red LED neon
- SW 7069 Iron Ore · PPG Black Magic
- ¼" flat-cut & welded 5052 aluminum
- Brushed · orbital · satin-anodized finishes
- HIP reflective traffic aluminum & posts
