FAYETTEVILLE — Headed to a tournament at the Gary Hampton Softball Complex? Want to check out the farmers’ market near the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks?
Fayetteville officials hope a new system of signs to be posted throughout the city will help travelers find their way.
At A Glance
Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs
The following locations will be listed on 62 new wayfinding signs to be posted throughout Fayetteville:
-Arkansas Air and Military Museum
-Botanical Garden of the Ozarks
-Clinton House Museum
-Dickson Street
-Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce
-Fayetteville District Court
-Fayetteville Public Library
-Fayetteville Square
-Gary Hampton Softball Complex
-John Paul Hammerschmidt Federal Building
-Lake Fayetteville
-University of Arkansas
-Uptown Fayetteville
-Walker Park
-Washington County Courthouse
Source: City Of Fayetteville
The city and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission will take bids next month on a regional “wayfinding” sign program.
In Fayetteville, 62 signs are set to be installed off Interstate 540 and along main streets, directing people to places such as the Washington County Courthouse, the University of Arkansas, Lake Fayetteville and the Clinton House Museum. The signs will replace a hodgepodge of markers that have been posted throughout Fayetteville over the years by the city and the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.
“We’re trying to get tourists and residents to places they might want to visit,” said Jeremy Pate, Fayetteville Development Services director.
The signs, for the most part, are not to be used to advertise private enterprises.
Seven cites in the region — Fayetteville, Springdale, Lowell, Rogers, Siloam Springs, Bella Vista and Eureka Springs — are participating in the project, which is being funded in part by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation to the Northwest Arkansas Council.
The foundation helped Bentonville develop a similar project before the opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art last year. The University of Arkansas also has plans to install campus-specific wayfinding signs.
The foundation paid Merje, a West Chester, Pa., graphic design company, to design the signs and identify where they should be installed. The seven participating cities will split up to $350,000 to install signs in one area of each city. Fayetteville staff chose to use its share of the money to put 11 signs in and around the downtown square, Pate said.
Participating cities are responsible for installing other signs throughout town within five years, maintaining the signs and conducting surveys with places identified on the signs to see if visitors used them.
The project in Fayetteville is expected to cost the city and Advertising and Promotion Commission $125,000 apiece. Mayor Lioneld Jordan said he wants to have all signs installed by summer 2013.
Each city has a similar design but with different motifs and color schemes. Fayetteville’s signs will have a green accent and back panel representing the hills of Fayetteville.
“It connects the region in a visual way,” said Stacey Sturner, project manager for the Northwest Arkansas Council, a group of the area’s leaders. “All of the signs have the same unique design yet allow the cities to maintain their own identity.”
Warren Jones, executive director of the Arkansas Air and Military Museum on South School Avenue, said he was happy to hear about the wayfinding project.
“To me, that’s free publicity,” Jones said.
Pate said the project could eventually be expanded. Signs could be added, for example, that direct drivers from Fayetteville to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.