How Companies Put Names up in Lights : Signs: Building identification can enhance leasing activity, but the design and approval process is expensive and can be discouraging.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

That’s how one First Interstate Bancorp executive responded recently to a spate of criticism over signs atop its new headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

The four gold-leaf, halo-lit “I” logos have drawn such reactions as “awful” and “out of place,” while renewing talk about how to balance aesthetics with realities of the commercial real estate marketplace.

Cities such as San Francisco and Houston restrict signs atop high-rise office buildings.

In Los Angeles, however, companies negotiate long and hard to get their names attached to an office project. In fact, say local brokers, building identification can make or break a big lease--and a big development.

First Interstate World Center illustrates the point. Developer Maguire Thomas Partners originally named its 73-story project Library Tower. That all changed, however, when First Interstate negotiated to occupy a chunk of the then-unleased project in exchange for having it renamed. First Interstate was assured of a place at Los Angeles’ apex. Maguire Thomas was able to proceed with construction knowing it had a sizeable lease in hand.

The building has won almost universal accolades. As for its signs, “It is our regret that some people don’t like the them,” said Simon Barker-Benfield, senior vice president at First Interstate. The logos were designed to complement the tower’s architecture, he added, but, “there will always be critics.”

Just what does it take to get your name in lights atop L.A.’s skyline? Essentially what’s needed is plenty of money, clout and patience.

Ask Wells Fargo Bank; its sign story has turned into something of a saga. In 1987, the bank relocated its headquarters from 444 S. Flower St. to Crocker Center, just a few blocks away. Wells made the move after acquiring Crocker, and executives hoped for a quick name change at the center to reflect the bank’s new ownership.

In 1990, Wells Fargo is still waiting. Its new home at 333 S. Grand Ave. is now called the North Tower at Wells Fargo Center, but its name has yet to light up the sky.

Frustrated by a lengthy design and approval process, Wells Fargo finally decided to just pull the Crocker Bank logos off the tower and leave it unidentified. This year, however, the bank is expected to go ahead and put its name at the top of the building.

Owners of the 444 S. Flower building got around to replacing the Wells Fargo stagecoach logo atop their building in December. The sign now sports a sleek 444 logo.

At the center of these delays and some of the controversies over taste are a set of guidelines administered by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. The agency must review and pass judgment on all the high-rise signs in downtown Los Angeles, based on such criterion as size, color, design and compatibility with a building’s architecture.

“We try to address signage at a very early stage of a building’s design process,” said city planner Jeffrey Skorneck. That way, he explained, developers and tenants know that their signs have to meet certain standards before making it to the top.

Topping the CRA’s list of downtown don’ts is a strong preference for approving corporate logos only--no full company names.

Officials at the CRA were very satisfied with the Wells Fargo stagecoach symbol atop its former headquarters. The bank, however, wanted a sign reading Wells Fargo Bank. So began a battle that has been highlighted by years of negotiation and, finally, compromise. Expect a sign to appear this year, reading Wells Fargo, without the word Bank, on two of the building’s four sides.

First Interstate agreed to forgo its familiar orange-colored sign in favor of what officials hoped would be a more “tasteful” gold leaf. And, First Interstate will have to make do with its logo only. First Interstate World Center has no room at the top for both a logo and a name.

“Emotions run high on these items,” said Maury Blitz, assistant project manager at Maguire Thomas. The recently completed building was not designed to accommodate logos at the top. But, he said, “great efforts were made on the sign to make it look as good as it could look.”

Privately, even principals at Maguire Thomas are less than fully pleased with the four First Interstate logos atop the new tower. They are viewed, however, as a necessary lease concession.

“I don’t know of a landlord who’s thrilled about giving signage rights to a tenant,” said Virginia Weathers, development manager for 550 S. Hope St., under construction next to the library. “It’s a provision we’re forced to make.”

“It’s a big deal to the tenant,” observed Weathers--especially in Los Angeles. While other cities such as San Francisco and Houston forbid new high-rise signs, developers in Los Angeles balk at the thought.

In fact, tenants who aren’t granted sign rights in downtown Los Angeles often choose to locate instead in Glendale, Burbank, parts of Orange County or the Westside, where they have more leeway with landlords--and no supervision by the CRA.

Even at a cost of up to $1 million, these signs are “well worth the money,” maintained Robert Keenan, executive director of the California Electric Sign Assn. in Claremont.

“It’s the least-expensive form of advertising,” he said. What, he asked, could be better promotion than associating a corporation with a local landmark?

Most tenants with signs atop their office buildings do not own the building, noted Keenan, but the signs give people the perception that they do. “The whole structure symbolizes the strength of the corporation,” said Keenan. “The steel, concrete and glass all attest to their stability.”

Not everyone appreciates such signs, however. “The signs are tacky,” countered Eugene Page of The Faulkner Co.

“It makes for crummy architecture.” Architects should instead be encouraged to build signature buildings that do not need any signs, he said--buildings such as San Francisco’s Transamerica Tower or New York’s Empire State Building. Such structures, Page said, are instantly recognizable by virtue of their design.

In Los Angeles, he concedes, it is harder to get such buildings out of the ground. Flat roofs are a local fire requirement for helicopter evacuation. The result, he maintained, have usually been boring glass boxes. Architects also prefer not to think in advance about how signs will look on their buildings, said Page. “They don’t want their building defiled.”

While signs are an important issue to most big-time tenants and developers, there are a few exceptions. IBM Corp. obtained CRA rights several years ago to identify its downtown Los Angeles offices. The computer giant has chosen instead to keep a low profile with its name more discreetly located at ground level.

Some developers have stood firm on keeping signs off their creations. One example is Metropolitan Structures West Inc., developer of California Plaza atop Bunker Hill. The developer opted with its first building to seek out tenants that would not demand that their names be put in lights. Signs, the developer realized, can sometimes turn other tenants off to a project.

“We like the fact that our building has no sign now,” said Greg Schultz, senior vice president. As construction on the yet-to-be-leased Two California Plaza continues, he concedes however: “We could change our mind very quickly.”

Indeed, change seems endemic to signs atop high-rise office buildings in downtown Los Angeles and other cities nationwide. And, with major corporations bought and sold every day, more signs of change are sure to appear across the skyline.

SALES Newport Firm Buys $532-Million Portfolio Koll Co. of Newport Beach is paying $532 million to buy a portfolio of properties in 19 states from Union Pacific Corp. The deal includes 15,000 acres and 30 mostly industrial buildings. Union Pacific still has 1,000 acres to sell--along with an oil field in Long Beach and a Las Vegas casino.

Separately, Koll has pre-sold a 200,000-square-foot building at its soon-to-be-built Koll Anaheim Center to Pacific Bell for about $16 million. Last month, Koll secured preliminary approval for 1.2 million square feet of development on 16 acres at Harbor Boulevard and Broadway. When completed, the project will have an estimated value of $200 million.

Irvine Atrium Sold to Hyogo Real Estate

Hyogo Real Estate USA Inc. has bought The Atrium in Irvine from French & McKenna Co. for more than $80 million. The project’s two 10-story office towers at 19100-19200 Von Karman Ave. are 95% leased. Partners Tony French and Chuck McKenna now plan to develop a 10-acre parcel near Von Karman and Main Street with Aetna Realty Investors.