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Project Details

Fabric 1

Proof 502
Producer/Manufacturer: Serge Ferrari North America Inc.
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Engineer Name 1
Structural Hawaii

Engineer Company 1
Structural Hawaii

Fabrication Company
Tropical J's Inc

Subcontractor Company
Paramount Roll Forming

Project Manager Name
Justin Barnes

Project Manager Company
Tropical J's, Inc

Installation Name
Straub

Installation Company
Tropical J's, Inc

Please describe the project specifications

We had completed an awning for the rear of the Straub's Medical Center during Covid, and this was seen by the CEO who fell in love with the design.
Straub Medical Center is a not-for-profit health care system with a 159-bed hospital in Honolulu, and a network of neighborhood clinics. Their CEO then reached out to his facilities manager and told him to find the company that made the awning and to have them make something similar and grand for the central rotunda area.
The rotunda area was a challenging area because it was in the heart of the hospital and the ground with no direct out side access and was actually the ceiling to a lab facility below. They had an issue with birds so a single tube vice truss was preferred for the rafters; the tube would need to overlap the building about 18’. The canopy had a projection of about 35’.

So, the challenges became in designing a canopy that had structural elements that were in line with existing building foundation elements while being able to maintain the desired shape of a freestanding canopy. It quickly became apparent that we may also have an issue raising the 34’ long rafter 18’ as weights were expecting to be about 1700 pounds per rafter and may have to be hoisted up and the overlap a building element; all over the lab roof below.

In the engineering phase, the engineers increased our rafter size from 5” to 6” and also approved the use of a mini crane for use on the roof deck. A single rafter was chosen to avoid birds and was chosen since we could expect to use the crane.

We developed diablo connectors cut out of flat plate on our water jet. We plasma cut the 6” pipe and welded these into them. We could now make and transport the rafters in 16’ sections. It was about this time the engineering company reached out and said they had “reviewed their work” and mini crane would actually break the floor/roof below and could not be used. They also discovered that they needed to introduce interior x-cabling, essentially dividing the 75’ width into 6 bays.

We resolved the mini crane by sourcing a hand crank crane.
We resolved the interior cabling by suggesting upper elbow plates welded in place that were approved by the engineers.
We resolved these late-stage issues by never working with this firm again.

We did a very thorough 3D measuring event and everything was manufactured to fit perfect in space and then be field welded where it landed. Because the job was so design heavy, it left very little site fabrication. We came in one day to install all-thread for the posts. The next week the entire canopy including fabric was installed in 4 business days and we did not burn the hospital down while field welding.

Paramount roll forming bent our 6” tubes
We manufactured all frame elements
We manufactured the fabric cover
We manufactured all fabric plates and fabric cabling

In the end, our expertise in 3D design and production, and our precedents with engineering allowed us to navigate successfully through very high-level selling, production and installation path, despite what felt almost like sabotage from the engineering firm. In the end the canopy finally filled the entire space and provided waterproof transition from the building because of the overlap at 18’. There was no place for birds to sit and at 18’ it was definitely grand.

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