Industries
Signage for Government & Municipal Buildings
A government building's signage answers to the public and to the code at the same time. Accessibility here is not just good practice, it is what the building is accountable for.
The problem municipal signage actually solves
A government building carries a level of public accountability for accessibility that a private office does not have to think about in the same way. It also tends to pack more unrelated functions under one roof, courts, licensing, permitting, public works, than almost any other building type, and it serves a visitor population that is overwhelmingly first-time and unfamiliar with the layout.
Lake County has 49 municipalities, each with its own village hall, public works and public safety facilities, alongside county-level buildings like the Lake County Courthouse and Administration Building in Waukegan, built between 2015 and 2018 to consolidate county government functions. That range, from a small village hall to a county courthouse complex, shares the same underlying signage obligations even as the scale changes dramatically.
Accessibility here is a public obligation, not a preference
Public entities carry accessibility obligations under Title II of the ADA in addition to the same 2010 ADA Standards that apply to private construction, and a government building’s signage is more exposed to scrutiny than a private office’s simply because it serves the general public without the ability to screen who walks through the door.
The scoping rules do not change based on who owns the building. Signs identifying permanent rooms and spaces, clerk’s offices, courtrooms, restrooms, department suites, require tactile and braille compliance under Section 216.2. Directional and informational signage, like a sign pointing visitors toward the permit counter, requires only visual character compliance (2010 ADA Standards 216.3), and a building directory listing departments is exempt from the sign scoping rules altogether (2010 ADA Standards 216.1, Exception 1). Means-of-egress signage is its own category under Section 216.4: signs at doors to exit stairways, exit passageways and exit discharge need tactile characters, braille and visual characters (2010 ADA Standards 216.4.1), while area of refuge signs and signs directing people to accessible exits need visual characters only (2010 ADA Standards 216.4.2 and 216.4.3). We document this scoping explicitly for a government client, because it is the detail most likely to come up in a public records request, a complaint, or an internal review.
Wayfinding for a stranger with one specific reason to be there
Most visitors to a government building are not familiar with it and are not there for a general visit. They have a court date, a permit deadline, a license to renew, or a specific department to find, often under time pressure. Wayfinding has to work for that visitor on their first and possibly only visit, not for staff who already know the building.
That means clear directory signage at the entrance, consistent department identification throughout, and wayfinding that accounts for a building that may house genuinely unrelated functions, courts and public works and licensing, side by side. We design the wayfinding system around that first-time visitor’s actual path, not around an org chart.
Procurement, bid packages and prevailing wage
Municipal and county projects run through a public bid or procurement process, and that process has its own documentation requirements, sometimes including prevailing wage compliance on public projects. We build specifications, drawings and pricing formatted to fit a standard procurement packet, and we handle the paperwork a public project requires as a known part of the process rather than an unexpected add-on late in the project.
Multilingual and high-traffic durability
Where a municipality’s population or a specific department calls for signage in more than one language, we build that into the message schedule from the start. And because municipal lobbies, hallways and public counters see continuous foot traffic from the general public, we specify impact-resistant substrates and durable finishes rated for that volume, the same class of material we use in schools and other heavily trafficked public buildings.
Where we start
Municipal projects typically start with a field survey and a review of your procurement requirements, so the proposal and specifications are built to fit your bid process from the beginning. Tell us about your facility or project, including any multi-facility scope or procurement documentation you need, and we will scope from there.