Just over one month ago, developer SCG America held a topping-out ceremony for its Perla on Broadway condo tower in Downtown Los Angeles.  But a proposed rooftop sign could take the building to even greater heights.

Perla, which stands 35 stories at the southeast corner of 4th Street and Broadway, could be capped by an open-panel roof sign, according to a presentation scheduled for next week's meeting of the Central Area Planning Commission.  The sign - measuring 75 feet wide and 35 feet tall - would be mounted to the tower's mechanical penthouse, rising more than 446 feet above street level.

Though the City of Los Angeles has adopted a sign district for the Broadway corridor, the proposed roof sign would require an exception to those rules, as the sign is designed to protrude 58 feet above Perla's roofline - 13 feet over the 35-foot limit.  A staff report to the Area Planning Commission recommends that the requested exemption should be denied.

The Commission will also review plans for a 24-foot blade sign along Perla's Broadway facade.  The staff report recommends that the Commission should grant approval to the blade sign, which would be used for building identification rather than advertising.

The Central Area Planning Commission is scheduled to take up the items on September 10.

Perla, designed by CallisonRTKL, will rise approximately 417 feet in height without the proposed open-panel roof sign.  The project includes 450 condominiums - priced starting in the high $400,000s - with approximately 7,000 square feet of retail space and a parking structure.

The project's general contractor Swinerton is on pace to complete construction next year.