This circular P sign, shown on the East King Street Garage, will soon be on all of Lancaster City's public parking garages. Photo Courtesy Lancaster Newspapers

New signs, bright round button will make it easier for visitors to find Lancaster's public garages.

Lancaster New Era

February 12, 2009

Mark Vergenes has taken some unusual snapshots while traveling. In recent years, he's taken photos of parking garage signs.

Vergenes, chairman of the Lancaster Parking Authority, and Parking Authority executive director Tom Matthews used their cell-phone cameras for research. Along with the services of a design firm, they settled on a logo and new signs for Lancaster's public parking garages.

The white "P" inside a red circle will be an easily recognizable parking symbol for travelers who come here, they said this morning. Those signs are being installed this week.

"You see this stuff in New York, Baltimore, in other cities," Vergenes said. And, beginning this spring, with the opening of the Lancaster County Convention Center and Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square hotel, "There will be a significant number of parkers that have never been to Lancaster," he said.

Lancaster City's East King Street parking garage. Photo Courtesy Lancaster Newspapers

The 10 "red P" signs began appearing on the city's five public parking garages last week. The installation is expected to be complete by the end of the month.

The signs should be lighted at night beginning next month, Matthews said.

Along with the circular signs, the Parking Authority is installing vertical "blade" signs with the names of the garages. The consistently styled signs replace a hodgepodge of garage signage dating to the 1960s and 1970s, when most of the parking garages were erected.

"The other signs had to come down. They were in pretty poor shape," said Matthews, who added that the steel supports for the old signs are rusting away.

The adoption of the new signs came with the September opening of the new East King Street Parking Garage, in the 100 block of East King Street, said Matthews. Signage for that garage had to be designed.

In addition to the East King Street Garage, the Parking Authority operates the Prince Street Garage, at North Prince and West Orange streets; the Duke Street Garage, at North Duke and East Chestnut streets; the Water Street Garage, in the 200 block of North Water Street; and the Penn Square Garage, at East King, South Duke and East Vine streets.

The expected opening of the meeting center and hotel in April made the universal parking symbol even more important.

Matthews and Vergenes said blue or green is often used for parking signs, but they wanted to stay away from the blue because of the blue "H" sign used for hospitals. And the red is in keeping with the colors used on signage elsewhere in the city's downtown.

"It corresponds with the city beautification and the convention center, so it all kind of fell together," said Matthews.

The new vertical signs will be illuminated with energy-saving LED lights. The circular P signs have a low-wattage neon ring. The lights have sensors that will activate them when it grows dark, Matthews said.

Along with the exterior signs, the Parking Authority is also replacing signs inside its garages. There will be a consistent color code for all the garages, with each floor having color.