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Hel­lo Sun­shine! Col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts result in a solar sign at His­toric Farm

You may have dri­ven by the John­son Coun­ty His­toric Poor Farm with­out much notice. This rus­tic farm on the edge of Iowa City was estab­lished in 1855 as a place to care for the poor and men­tal­ly ill. Today it serves as a win­dow to the past.

If you didn’t know it was there, you may have dri­ven by the John­son Coun­ty His­toric Poor Farm with­out much notice. This rus­tic old farm on the edge of Iowa City was estab­lished in 1855 as a place to care for the poor and men­tal­ly ill. Today it serves as a win­dow to the past and is avail­able for tours.

Until recent­ly, there was no sign to iden­ti­fy the his­toric site. Lat­i­tude Latimer Group worked with the John­son Coun­ty Board of Super­vi­sors and Con­flu­ence Land­scape Archi­tec­ture to cre­ate a thor­ough­ly mod­ern sign that pays homage to the farm’s history.

JCPF Solar Sign Horiz Website

Sig­nage Cre­ates A His­toric Look

“John­son Coun­ty was inter­est­ed in corten steel because of its rust­ed met­al appear­ance,” says Bryce Carl­son, Lat­i­tude Sales Con­sul­tant. ​“They also had con­cep­tu­al designs pro­vid­ed by Con­flu­ence Land­scape Archi­tec­ture, but gave us the free­dom to come up with inno­v­a­tive ideas for pro­duc­tion.”

Lat­i­tude brought in sam­ples of a faux corten mate­r­i­al that offered the same look as corten steel but was much more bud­get-friend­ly. An alu­minum pan­el is primed and then coat­ed with a solu­tion that con­tains iron flakes. Next, a rust acti­va­tor is sprayed over the top. This caus­es a reac­tion that speeds up the oxi­da­tion process. When the desired amount of rust has been achieved, a clear coat is sprayed to stop the rust­ing process. The piece will stop any addi­tion­al rust­ing, so no runs or drips on its sur­round­ings once the sign is installed.

The Board of Super­vi­sors were impressed by the con­sis­tent look — and afford­able price — of the alu­minum alter­na­tive. Because of the cost-sav­ings, they found using the faux corten steel, the Board of Super­vi­sors were able to add illu­mi­na­tion to the sign, which was not part of the orig­i­nal design.

JCPH Monument Solar Sign

Mod­ern Tech­nol­o­gy for His­toric Signage

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty is a high-pri­or­i­ty for John­son Coun­ty, and the Board was intrigued by the pos­si­bil­i­ty of adding solar illu­mi­na­tion to the sign. Lat­i­tude design­ers and pro­duc­tion experts worked togeth­er to cre­ate a stun­ning sign with LED back­lit let­ters that is entire­ly solar-pow­ered. The lime­stone base hous­es the bat­tery that stores the ener­gy from an adja­cent solar pan­el. This self-con­tained sys­tem will pow­er the sign com­plete­ly off-grid.

Coor­di­nat­ing the build took a col­lab­o­ra­tive approach from Lat­i­tude to ensure the foun­da­tion had space for the solar equip­ment, access for main­te­nance, and con­duits to run pow­er through­out the sign. ​“Latitude’s hard work made this sign a real­i­ty. The Super­vi­sors are over the moon about it, and I appre­ci­ate all of the com­mu­ni­ca­tion and on-the-fly maneu­ver­ing that made it pos­si­ble,” says Vanes­sa Fixmer-Oraiz from John­son County.

“This project is a great exam­ple of how we can use inno­v­a­tive mate­ri­als and tech­nol­o­gy to go beyond our clients’ expec­ta­tions to cre­ate some­thing that looks great and match­es their desired style while giv­ing them more func­tion­al­i­ty,” Carl­son says.

"This project is a great example of how we can use innovative materials and technology to go beyond our clients’ expectations to create something that looks great and matches their desired style while giving them more functionality."

Bryce Carlson, Latitude Signage

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