The implementation of Destination 2010 takes a step forward this week as the university changes the school’s three entrance signs, altering the logo and adding backlighting.

The formal name of the university ?” California State University, Sacramento ?” will still be featured on the signs along with the university’s 2005 identity change to Sacramento State.

However, Frank Whitlatch, associate vice president of Public Affairs, said the change adds Sacramento State’s campus seal, replacing the CSUwide seal that appeared on the old signs.

Whitlatch described the campus seal as an oval with the university name and founding year (1947).

It will be green and gold and will be in line with the color hues used since the announcement of Destination 2010, Whitlatch said.

Osaki Design, which also designed Sac State’s new logo last year, and is designing its identity package, crated the new signage scheme.

Whitlatch said the project, from inception to completion, will cost $83,000 for the three signs ?” two on J Street and one on College Town Drive.

Pacific Neon won the bidding process for manufacturing and installing the signs, which starts Tuesday, Whitlatch said. Each sign should take two to three days to complete.

The new signs will not be letters affixed to the concrete slab like the old signs were. Instead, the signs will be aluminum, which allows for backlighting at night, Whitlatch said.

“People tell me all the time they don’t see the entrance when driving down J Street,” Whitlatch said. “The key point to the new signs is they’ll be more noticeable; there will be a more striking entrance at both ends of campus.”

Bridge may get new colors

Alicia Loza-Ponce

State Hornet

The 600-foot Guy West Bridge, now a salmon color, has lost the glimmer of its original golden luster.

Twenty years since the bridge’s last makeover, the university wants to have the bridge repainted, but because it is owned by the City of Sacramento and is under the department of parks and recreation, the overdue makeover is on the city’s to-do list and will get done when there is money to do it, said Matt Altier, director of University Enterprises Inc.

According to Sac State Magazine, a green and gold color scheme for the towers with the school’s name spanning the length of the bridge is the current project under consideration.

With the possibility of having a green and gold colored bridge, some students felt that the new colors would take away from its original meaning.

Sophomore Lyndsey Vaden said, “Personally it would be nice to be school colors, but we have plenty of things that are school colors, so it’s kind of nice that it’s a mini Golden Gate Bridge.”

The rumor around campus is that a senior engineering major designed the Guy West Bridge. However, the rumor is merely a legend that hasn’t been proven either way, said Lori Hall with Public Affairs.

The bridge, built in the mid 1960s, and was named in honor of Guy West, the first president of Sac State when the school opened in 1947.

According to the magazine, Ted D’Amico, then executive vice president of the Spink Corp., a Sacramento-based engineering firm, designed the bridge.

When built, the bridge was hailed as the “longest foot suspension bridge in the United States.”

Norm Erickson and Alicia Loza-Ponce can be reached at [email protected]