Looking to revamp campus directional signs, University officials teamed up with Sasaki & Associates to create wayfinding signs that radiate with LSU history and pride.Facility Services officials and other University organizations will view one of Sasaki’s final concept presentations Oct. 23 in the Energy, Coast and Environment building’s rotunda auditorium at 1:30 p.m. — an event welcome to students. Jason Soileau, assistant director of Facility Development, said wayfinding signs structure and present information about getting around on campus. Signs giving directions for drivers and walkers and signs identifying buildings and informational kiosks are included.”A successful wayfinding system should also capture our culture, history and spirit,” he said.Currently, signs on campus don’t match — they have different fonts, colors, use old University logos and generally give little or no direction. Soileau said the goal of the project is to develop a “family” of signs matching in style, while at the same time improve campus navigation.”What we have on campus is visual clutter,” Soileau said. “It’s very confusing if you are a visitor.”Soileau said the main “gateways” into campus, like the North and South gates, need to be restored and improved because there isn’t a clear way for visitors to know they are entering campus. Brian Pearce, a senior associate at Sasaki & Associates, in Boston, and fellow colleagues visited the University about four times since work on the project began six months ago. On his first visit, Pearce drove around campus using only current campus wayfinding signs to find his way to the visitor’s center and other campus buildings. “It was challenging,” Pearce said.Working closely with the wayfinding management team at the University — made up of members from Facility Services, Finance and Administrative Services, Academic Affairs, Public Affairs, Facility Development and Design Committee and Student Government — Pearce said he wants to make the signs highly functional and distinctive.”The campus has a lot of different flavors,” Pearce said. “The signs will be uniform in a sense, but we want to inject some variety into them.”Sasaki worked with the Downtown Development District to design similar wayfinding signs for downtown Baton Rouge earlier this year. The Downtown Development District recently received the 2008 Outstanding Achievement Award in Transportation from the International Downtown Association for their wayfinding project. Sasaki designed wayfinding systems for Harvard University, Boston University, Massachusetts Institution of Technology and many other cities and schools. “I was elated to hear the University selected [Sasaki],” said Davis Rhorer, executive director of the Downtown Development District. “It was a great and enjoyable experience working with them.”Rhorer said the Downtown Development District has worked with Pearce and Sasaki for several years.Soileau said the wayfinding project will be implemented in phases. He is hopeful 75 percent of the project will be completed in three years. Sasaki will develop an estimated cost for the project that will be available around January, Soileau said.
—-Contact Kyle Bove at [email protected]