This entire design concept encompasses many historic locations in the City of North Tonawanda including the Erie Canal and Webster Street, the central route through downtown.

The aim is to unify the package by connecting each sign to its immediate context while still reflecting the overall history of the region.

While the sign content interprets the past, the design and material quality reflects the present. By encompassing more current styles into the graphics and material characteristics, the signs will continue to perform to a high design standard into the next two decades.

Directory Panels at Gateway Harbor
The prominence of brick as a primary building material in most of the downtown architecture and historic streets is described by the strong brick columns that support the panels. The signs contain unifying graphics and announce the location. Brief histories, maps, and local events are depicted.

Interpretive signs along Erie Canal waterway... The strong column of brick is replaced by wood, emphasizing the lumber trade that sustained North Tonawanda. The wooden column is intersected by the plane of the interpretive panel. These signs have a unifying graphic header. The content largely connects themes in the canal’s history to the immediate surroundings. Topics include the history of gateway harbor and the canal in North Tonawanda, local architecture, the Rand industries as they occupied nearby buildings, the bridges, the boats and barges, the towpath on the opposite shoreline, and the pre-canal condition of the waterway and its usefulness to native peoples.

Final Designs for Erie Canal waterway signs... Meeting the Coastal Resource Grant guidelines, these signs interpret a variety of waterway experiences along the canal, as well as important industries like Remington Rand, and Hershel Spillman.