The stolen letters from the U’s front marquee will never be the same.
On Aug. 6, thieves made off with eight letters from the marquee, leaving the U as the “Ivy of Utah, ounded in 1850.” U Police Capt. Lynn Mitchell said he thinks it might have been a joke on someone’s part to leave letters that might suggest the U is an Ivy League school. The U has since removed the remaining letters from the marquee.
Replacing the letters will cost about $5,000, which state risk management is fully covering, thanks to the U’s insurance, said Steve Eavis, facilities coordinator.
But the letters won’t be the same once the marquee is restored in four to five weeks. The original letters were made of brass, and were created in a font that Eavis said is so old, no one at the metalcompanies or the U knows what it was.
“We couldn’t even find one that matched it,” Eavis said. It would cost $11,000 to order brass letters in the customized font that matches the old one. So the U is opting for brown cast aluminum that won’t oxidize, in a font similar to the old one.
U Facilities Management has to do this with all of the letters. The remaining brass letters have oxidized, and filling in the blanks with new ones would have been painfully obvious, he said.
Besides replacing the letters, U Facilities will also use new studs to more securely anchor the letters to the wall. The anchoring is included in the letter replacement costs, Eavis said.
U Police have no leads on who stole the letters.