Healthy crowds swarmed the Oak Park Arts District last weekend for the annual Art on Harrison event. By the time they return next October, art aficionados will find dramatic new signage calling out the district's arts focus as well as another new restaurant to enjoy.

The new street signs and welcoming gateway structures could be installed in the arts district, Harrison Street from Austin Boulevard to Ridgeland Avenue, by the year's end.

Harrison Street businesses have been working and debating with the village government for several years over how to best use village funds earmarked to upgrade the district and, specifically to highlight the arts convergence in the area. The Lakota Group, a consulting firm which is also working on the reopening of Marion Street in Downtown Oak Park, has helped guide the project.

Last month Oak Park accepted a $120,727 bid from Wisconsin-based Poblocki Sign Company to add 24 colorful street signs and five illuminated, vine-covered gateway structures in the village's arts district. The 12-foot high, 8-foot wide structures will identify the arts district.

Four companies bid on the project, with a high bid of over $220,000, and Poblocki offering the low bid.

The village board put out a request for bids last July and asked consultant Daniel Grove of Lakota Group and village staff to identify a recommended sign company.

In business for 74 years, Poblocki estimates that each gateway structure, made of aluminum and acrylic paint, will cost around $98,000 and each new street sign will ring in at $925. Some $320,000 was available from a previous bond for the new sign structures, Village Manager Tom Barwin reported in July.

Village Planner Craig Failor said installation of the structures shouldn't affect automobile or pedestrian traffic, but might disrupt parking, if anything.

The structures will be placed along Harrison with two at Austin Boulevard and Ridgeland and one structure at Lombard Avenue.

Poblocki is still working on completing its drawings, fabrications and the footings for the structures. They're part of a catalyst project on Harrison which will include new park benches, better lighting, streetscape improvements, and enhancements to Chicago Transit Authority platforms at Austin and Lombard.

"We hope it will have a positive impact and identify the district to anyone who drives through that area," Failor said. "It will definitely make it more recognizable."