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Project Details

Fabric 1

Flexlight Xtrem TX30-Type III
Producer/Manufacturer: Serge Ferrari North America Inc.
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Engineer Company 1
GLR Engineers

Design Company
Uni-Systems, LLC

Architect Company
O’Donnell Dannwolf and Partners Architects, Inc.

Fabrication Company
Lightweight Manufacturing

Project Manager Company
Uni-Systems, LLC

Installation Company
Smart Shade Structures

Please describe the project specifications

Fort Partners—owners of The Residences at Seaway at the north end of their Surf Club development along a prestigious stretch of oceanfront property on North Collins Avenue—desired a retractable canopy over a trellis for their updated 1930’s historical-period courtyard and planned signature dining terrace. Our company provided an En-Fold® retractable canopy unit featuring the Serge Ferrari Flexlight Xtrem TX30-III fabric, with dimensions of 32’-9” in extension by 67’3” wide, affording over 2,200 square feet of courtyard coverage from rain and sun.

Directly beneath the En-Fold® retractable canopy system is the fixed trellis. The entire depth of the En-Fold system and the trellis needed to fit within a narrow vertical space above sets of bay windows on the second floor and below the bottom of the window sills on the third floor. To decrease teh depth of the En-Fold system we reduced the width of the fabric panels by half and doubled the number of them. Furthermore, the En-Fold slopes one-half inch per foot towards the extension (deployed) end to properly shed rainwater, and we had to narrow each successive fabric panel by about 2" to prevent the pleats of the retracting fabric panels from dragging across the top of the trellis beams. The widest fabric panels at the high end are roughly 28" and the narrowest panel at the low end is only 14"

The En-Fold system utilizes catenary edge ropes along the sides of the awning to produce biaxial tension in the fabric and allow the system to handle over 30 pounds per square foot of wind pressure. The successively narrower fabric panels meant that eight different lengths of edge ropes needed to be precisely calculated cut to length and made with eye splices at each end.

The result is a highly coordinated integration of a modern retractable canopy and old world styled trellis over the historic courtyard.

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