With new sign for NFL Draft, Detroit goes Hollywood — sort of
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
A rendering of Detroit's new sign, post-installation. Courtesy of the city of Detroit
A new Hollywood-style sign welcoming people to Detroit will be permanently installed along I-94 before the NFL Draft in April.
Driving the news: Letters for the sign were being fabricated Wednesday at the Fairmont Sign Company's east-side warehouse.
- The city is spending $400,000 on the project, according to the Free Press.
What they're saying: "It's going to be like the Hollywood sign, but smaller," Jessica Parker, the city's deputy chief operations officer, told the Freep.
- "The letters will look like they are floating on beautiful greenery."
Reality check: The Hollywood sign letters are 45 feet tall and affixed to the hillside about 1,400 feet above Los Angeles, according to Vanity Fair's 100-year retrospective on the world-famous landmark.
- Detroit's letters are 8 feet tall and will be installed on 2-foot-tall concrete bases between Central Street and Cecil Avenue on eastbound I-94.
Between the lines: The letters will be internally illuminated for night visibility in white.
- Fairmont is also making several "Welcome to Detroit" signs that will be installed along the city's perimeter.