Staff Writer
Twenty area street signs have been replaced due to efforts made by The College of Saint Rose. The new signs have a dual function: serving to brand the school and to help those new to Saint Rose find the college easily.
The new signs feature the seal of the state of New York, with the street name on the right of the seal, and the words ‘The College of Saint Rose’ in black letters against a yellow background underneath the seal and the street name.
The new street signs, installed between October 18 and 19, cost the college about $4,100 said Vice President of Finance and Administration Marcus Buckley. Buckley helped set up funding for the project after it was approved by the Board of Trustees.
In addition to the 20 street signs, Saint Rose has also purchased six highway guide signs, bringing the total spent on new signage to $23,350. This was the first attempt in 25 years the college had made update its own signage.
The street sign renovations were a collaborative effort between the police department and the college said William Trudeau, coordinator of traffic engineering for the Albany Police Department. The signs, some of which were in disrepair, were paid for entirely by Saint Rose.
“Criticisms were often made about the college’s lack of identification signage…visitors often told stories of driving right through campus without realizing they had done so,” said Buckley, in an e-mail sent regarding the reason for the updated signage.
The signage update was an effort years in the making said Lisa Thomson, a spokesperson for The College of Saint Rose. At the forefront of the project was college president R. Mark Sullivan; his goal was to gain awareness of the college through branding, including street signs on the corners of Partridge Avenue and Madison Avenue as well as Partridge Avenue and Western Avenue.
“One of the goals of the program was to create what the design people refer to as a ‘sense of arrival’,” Buckley said. “I think that the team that worked on this project accomplished that goal.”
