Design Review Board approves 100 North Main signage package with conditions

The City of Alpharetta Design Review Board on April 25 approved a signage package for 100 North Main with a set of conditions intended to protect the building’s historic-like facade while allowing tenant identification.

The board’s approval, unanimous 5-0, sets maximum sizes and mounting details for wall-mounted tenant signs and pedestrian blade signs, requires matching background colors across building signage, and defers murals and any monument sign decisions until the site’s driveway and landscaping are finalized.

Board members and staff said the building’s narrow sign bands and classical brick detailing limit signage options. Patty Huxford of the Huxton Group, the applicant, told the board that the building currently has limited tenant exposure at the storefront level and that the landlord wants a clear, standardized sign package to give prospective tenants instruction on allowable sign size, placement and finish. “There’s very little space on this building for signage,” Huxford said during her presentation.

The board’s conditions—moved and read into the record by a board member and seconded—include: requiring a recessed pan with returns so wiring is hidden; limiting the east elevation tenant sign to the distance from the centerline of the first window to the centerline of the fourth window and the south elevation tenant sign to centerline of the first to the third window; leaving 2 inches of exposed masonry above and below the wall sign band (yielding about a 16-inch band and 14-inch letter height); sizing a future monument at a smaller scale with a base roughly one‑third of the total sign height; and ensuring the large building blade sign does not exceed 60 square feet. The motion also required that if illumination is provided it be hidden LED strips within sign bands. The board accepted a friendly amendment that the backgrounds of the wall signs, blade signs and any monument match the building finish shown in the submission.

Board members debated details such as whether individual letters should be mounted directly on brick or on a floating plate, and whether gooseneck lighting or halo illumination is more appropriate. Staff and the applicant agreed that mounting plates with recessed returns that make a sign appear to float—while housing wiring—will be included in the technical sign drawings the applicant will deliver to staff. The applicant agreed to supply the more detailed, dimensioned drawings after the meeting; staff said those drawings will specify maximum letter height, plate depth, recessed returns and the final background color to match the building.

Murals and a possible tenant or building logo on the parking-deck-facing wall were explicitly excluded from approval and must return for separate review once a tenant or the landlord decides the final use. The board noted that murals may require Arts Commission review if they are treated as artwork rather than tenant signage.

The board voted to approve the package with conditions; the motion passed 5-0.

What’s next: Staff and the applicant will prepare a revised, technical sign package that incorporates the board’s conditions (panel returns, exact dimensions, material and color specifications) and circulate it to board members; tenant-specific signage is not required to return if it conforms to the approved package, but any signage that departs from the package or murals/monument proposals must return for review.