Client, Year
Federal Realty Investment Trust, 2019
Services
Wayfinding
Placemaking
Architectural Signage
Murals & Supergraphics
Criteria Guides
Awards / Press
Photography
Vivian Marie Doering
The Avenue at White Marsh
Counting steps before it was cool
The Avenue at White Marsh is a 35-acre shopping, dining, and entertainment site that opened in 1998 as a town center for nearby residents. Over a 3-year period, in collaboration with architects, landscape artists, client management, designers, and leasing teams, Ashton reinvigorated The Avenue with an energizing environmental refresh of painted and sculptural wall murals, directional signage, and custom tenant blade signs.
The suite of applications cemented The Avenue’s role as a thriving retail and entertainment destination, with the renovations significantly increasing foot traffic and helping attract and secure new, high-profile tenants while still enabling existing tenants to remain open for business.
A 50-foot pylon sign on Interstate 95 first greets visitors to The Avenue. Featuring the vibrant colors and geometric forms of The Avenue logo, it is a memorable introduction to the area.
Thematically driven by the landscape of Maryland, all murals and signage implement an element of nature in a distinct manner.
For the entrance, we created three 15-foot metal mesh letters of the logo that double as a natural growth wall for vines.
Bold directional signs add pops of brand colors. These have been color-coded to add visual consistency and functionality as a cohesive system—turquoise for project amenities, yellow for tenants, white for regional destinations, and dark blue for street names.
Additionally, the average number of steps to each destination was also included on the signage to encourage people to walk around and explore the site.
We created an abstract interpretation of the famous Wye Oak tree—the largest white oak in the United States and the State Tree of Maryland from 1941 until its demise in 2002. Real mason jars and LED bulbs are employed as a homage to the nostalgia of catching fireflies.
Perched on the branches are two stylized birds—an oriole and a raven—representing the area’s beloved national sports teams.
We created a system of 36 custom tenant blade signs with varying configurable components. Tenants could choose from four-panel shapes and four armature types.
Each tenant could color their panel based on their brand color, while restaurants had the choice of a cedar wood panel.
Additional wall murals consist of an “oar wall” that features actual oars with the names of Chesapeake Bay tributaries on the handles, as well as a large outline of the Maryland map with a red trace-LED “neon” heart marking the location of White Marsh.
The stylized Baltimore raven and oriole are featured again on the container located in the far corner of the parking lot.
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©2023 Ashton Design
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©2023 Ashton Design