A pylon sign is the tall freestanding sign at the edge of your property, built to be read from the road at speed. Where a monument sits low and says you've arrived, a pylon is visible from several hundred yards out and is what gets a driver to start slowing down.

They're the standard for retail centers, gas stations, hotels, car dealerships and anything with highway or arterial frontage — places where a building-mounted sign simply isn't visible in time to make the turn.

Single tenant and multi-tenant

A single-tenant pylon carries one business, usually a cabinet or a set of illuminated letters on a pole structure.

Multi-tenant pylons are a stack of individual tenant panels on one structure. If you own or manage a center, the panels are the part you'll deal with for years — tenants come and go, and each change means a new panel matched to the existing set. We fabricate replacement panels for existing pylons, including ones we didn't build. That's a small, unglamorous job most sign companies won't return a call about, and it's the reason property managers keep a number saved.

Refacing an existing pylon

Most pylons that look dead aren't. The structure is steel and it outlives everything attached to it. Yellowed faces, failed lighting and outdated tenant panels are all fixable without touching the pole or the foundation, usually for a fraction of replacement cost. If you've got a pylon on the property already, start there — see our refacing and LED retrofit page.

Height, and why it's the first conversation

Pylon height is where zoning gets strict, and the limit varies considerably across the Front Range. Denver, Englewood, Littleton and Sheridan all set their own maximums, and many corridors and planned developments have tighter rules layered on top. Setback from the right-of-way and sight-triangle clearance at driveways apply as well.

It's worth knowing your ceiling before you fall in love with a design. We check the applicable code for your parcel first, then design to what's actually permittable, then pull the permit.

Structure and sitework

A pylon is an engineered structure. Wind load calculations, a stamped foundation design, a caisson or footing dug below frost line, and an electrical run trenched from the building. On a new pylon that sitework is a significant share of the total, and it typically involves an engineer and an electrician alongside the sign work.

We'll tell you what that scope looks like before you budget, not after. If your project is a refacing or a panel change on an existing structure, none of that applies and the job is far simpler.

Send us the address and a photo of the frontage. Every pylon quote starts with what the code allows and what's already standing.