A logo featuring wavy blue lines and an open rectangle will highlight water features and the open-air concept of North Little Rock's planned Argenta Plaza.
It's the latest element underway for the $5.36 million plaza, under construction at Fifth and Main streets.
The downtown North Little Rock plaza, modeled in part after places such as Sundance Square in Fort Worth, will feature lighted, jetted fountains; grass berms in the shape of oxbow lakes; and a "front porch" with porch swings facing Main Street, according to a conceptual design unveiled in September 2017.
"One of the iconic images of the plaza will be the front porch and also the water fountains," Karen Trevino, chief operating officer of the North Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, told North Little Rock Advertising and Promotion commissioners in explaining the logo's concept last week.
"The rectangle design and the blue color recognize those features. The green is for the grass berms in the plaza."
The plaza's name will be inside the open rectangle.
The North Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau administrators selected the blue and green logo from among several submitted by Deluxe, a Minnesota-based logo design and Web services design company, said bureau Chief Executive Officer Bob Major.
The design process cost $350, Major said Friday.
"The price was very reasonable for a number of different plans and designs," he said. "I think it will work really well."
Construction on the plaza began in August. By late 2019, it should be completed.
The need for having a logo design now is so the bureau can start ordering supplies, letterhead and merchandise that will contain the logo, Major said.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau will manage the plaza's activities and handle maintenance once the bureau relocates downtown from its offices in the Visitors Center in Burns Park to the first floor of the planned $6.97 million 600 Main Building, as that office development has been called. Construction hasn't yet begun, but it is estimated to take 10-12 months, Major said.
The building will be just north of the plaza on the same side of Main Street. The bureau will be partners in the three-story building that will also house the Arkansas Automobile Dealers Association on the second floor and Taggart Architects on the third floor.
Major has said a new visitors bureau is to be incorporated into the bureau's downtown office and will include a retail store where some gifts and other merchandise for sale can contain the plaza logo.
First Orion, a company that develops and sells software for cellphones, is constructing a new, six-story headquarters directly behind Argenta Plaza. Construction on the two projects began in August.
The city's general fund budget includes a $940,000 expenditure under "special appropriations" for First Orion parking. The public parking lots will be used for both the First Orion employees and for plaza patrons as well as for downtown visitors eating out, shopping or attending concerts or shows at Verizon Arena or baseball games at Dickey-Stephens Park.
The new parking lot is to be behind the First Orion building. Limited public parking will also be off the corner of Main and Bishop Lindsey Avenue, also known as Seventh Street, for the 600 Main Building, according to previously filed city documents.
Metro on 12/17/2018