CityFront Terrace Sign

Picture Taken 10 January 2009

Unfortunately, like with much of San Diego tackiness, it is almost impossible to capture the true tackiness of this sign. In the picture it looks as if it has some sort of "Brassy" letters on a white background. This would certainly be tacky enough for an upscale condo building. As I know only too well real brass requires cleaning once a day at minimum. In an urban area such as San Diego it requires cleaning twice a day. What ever the letters and logo are they are not real brass exposed to the elements. And, in person they look appropriately cheesy.

The far greater offense however is that the background is not in fact white but a light green. It seems as if this is supposed to be some sort of bronze with patina, uncleaned brass in San Diego would be a dark splotchy black. But whatever it is supposed to be, it is not that. One the easiest paths to Takyland is to pretend to be something your not. I can understand the desire to have the sign be what it pretends to be. Condos in this area are old converted warehouses. One might think that history would be appealing. But in reality the developers where having to contend with a neighborhood that had a quite scuzzy reputation. Thus, everything about this building is an attempt not only to project a posh environment, but slyly imply it was always thus. But once they realized that they were not going to be able to have the sign be "real," they should have ditched the idea and gone with something else. This particular sign can be viewed from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade. The information for the condos follows:

CityFront Terrace
Phone: (619) 702-7729
Fax: (619) 702-7801
Email: cm@cityfrontterrace.org
Front Desk: (619) 702-9110
Office: CityFront Terrace HOA
500 W. Harbor Drive
San Diego, CA 92101