Exterior Signage for Alleyway Theatre | Flexlume

Project Background

Alleyway Theatre has been part of Buffalo's Theatre District since 1980 and has built its name on work you can't see anywhere else. Original plays and musicals premiere on its stage every season, and its education programs bring in high school students from across Erie County. The theatre itself was lively and bustling, but its exterior was not keeping pace. They needed to update their exterior signage: the marquee had been up a long time, the lighting was dated, and the smaller signs around the building needed the same attention.

Alleyway had worked with Flexlume before and came back on the strength of that experience. They also knew that they needed a partner that could handle the entire building exterior at once, and few companies in the region are set up to design, build, refurbish and install every piece of a job like that.

Key Challenges in Modernizing the Exterior Signage

Restoring the marquee presented several challenges:

• A Full Building, Not a Single Sign: The work covered the front elevation, the rear of the building and the alley entrance, each with its own sign type and condition. This was not a one-sign build or refurbishment, it was a full project.
• Refurbishment and New Fabrication Side by Side: The existing marquee was worth saving and updating, while the vertical element above it had to be built from nothing. Both had to look like one coordinated system when the lights came on.
• A Rare Sign Format: Vertical blade signs are uncommon on modern theatre marquees, which meant fabricating a custom shape.
• Flexibility for a Changing Schedule: A theatre's exterior works harder than most buildings. The venue needed lighting that could change from show to show rather than a fixed look it would live with for the next twenty years.

Solution: A Modernized Exterior Sign System by Flexlume

Flexlume handled the full exterior as a single program, combining refurbishment where the existing structure was sound with new fabrication where it was not.

• Marquee Refurbishment: The existing marquee was repainted, refitted with new LEDs and given new under-canopy lighting along with new channel letters.
• A New Vertical Blade: Flexlume built a reverse-L blade from the ground up, adding the vertical presence that gives the building its silhouette on the block.
• Programmable Lighting: RGB channel letters and LED strip lighting across the façade put color and effect under the theatre's control, so the exterior can shift for a premiere, a holiday run or a private event.
• Digital Message Centers: A digital message center above the marquee promotes what's playing to street traffic out front, with a second unit on the rear of the building.
• Rear and Alley Entrance Signs: The rear cabinet sign and the alley entrance sign were both rebuilt with new faces, paint and LEDs so no elevation was left behind.

Every element was specified to the same standard, which is what keeps a phased exterior from looking piecemeal once it's finished.

Outcome: A Unified Exterior Sign System

The finished exterior reads as one system rather than a collection of signs added over the years. Paint, lighting and sign faces are current across every elevation of the building, from the marquee down to the alley entrance.

The programmable lighting is where the Alleyway Theatre can let its exterior truly shine. Color changes that used to require a new sign now happen through a control setting, which gives the venue a different exterior for a comedy run than it has for a holiday show.

Between the vertical blade, the refurbished marquee and the programmable color, Alleyway's new look wouldn't feel out of place on Broadway or the Las Vegas Strip, bringing big-time theatre displays to downtown Buffalo.

Ready to Refresh Your Exterior Signs?

Request a quote from Flexlume and we'll walk through what your venue needs to bring the project to life.