Canopies for Offices—Big or Small, New or Existing

Many “professional offices” do not have ten stories above them with lots of glass, polished metal and a dramatic two story entrance to mark their location. And yet those smaller offices need and want a professional appearance to their office location and entrance that provides direction and creates a favorable impression as clients approach the building—the question then is: “What can be installed onto both new or existing smaller professional offices that accomplish the objectives of quality appearance and inviting entrance location”? Mapes Canopies—with a wide choice of styles and features—offers an answer!

Many times the choice is to install simple/functional entrance covers with little to no visual appeal or give the negative appearance factor of that option—nothing at all. But a very favorable option is readily available by installing quality, well designed and architecturally compatible entrance canopies designed and fabricated by Mapes Canopies. Mapes has been doing just that for many years on many types of projects, including professional office applications similar to those shown for this discussion. We have provided professional office canopies for multi-story Class A office structures in downtown metropolitan locations to the smaller offices in suburban areas that you find everywhere. The smaller professional office building can benefit from installing a high quality, well designed entrance canopy. A Mapes Canopy can be designed to enhance many different styles of buildings and architectural styles. And we have a full gallery of pictures to illustrate our history and capability. And we have the experienced people to get it done right.

The two projects depicted in this study, “Canopies for Professional Offices”, were chosen to show two significantly different situations. The project in Camillus, NY is totally new construction and uses the overhead hanger rod-supported style with a forward curved style. The other canopy shown in Lincoln, NE was chosen to illustrate an example of an existing smaller professional office space located in a newer upscale, single story office park. In that case, while the office space itself underwent remodeling for the new tenant, a focus was also made on making an upscale entrance feature for both appearance and function. And with most existing buildings, the design for an entrance canopy must take its cues from the existing structure and the ambiance of the surrounding buildings. A classic professional appearance must be envisioned with any new entrance structure/canopy. And again, Mapes Canopies has the styles that fit. In the Nebraska example, a post-supported canopy with forward curved canopy structure was chosen. Post-supported was chosen because the single story roof line did not provide the necessary height for overhead hanger rods and forward curved to reach out and invite clients to the primary office entrance.

In both cases, Mapes Super Lumideck, extruded aluminum canopy styles were chosen for strength, appearance and a rust free low maintenance criteria. The Super Lumideck style, with its all-extruded and rust-free aluminum canopy offers a choice of either standard 2¾ or flat soffit styles. The New York canopy used the standard 2¾ deck while the Lincoln, NE canopy used the flat soffit style. The new building in NY had the upper building scale height and detail to invite overhead supports for its entrance canopy. The heavy duty extruded canopy fascia also was able to mount the address lettering. The Nebraska building with it’s lower roof line required a post-supported style which worked quite well with the decorative vertical elements in the brick façade. Both used a forward curved deck style that reaches out to arriving clients and draws them to the primary entrance. And of course both offered door entry area rain protection at the door entry point.

Office of Labenz & Associates, CPA. – Lincoln, NE

The finish on both styles is a Mapes standard “Bronze Baked enamel” which as shown to be an extremely good finish over many years and economical as well. The Mapes Bronze Baked Enamel fits in with many architectural styles that offer a connection to traditional styling or incorporates some of the natural earth tones in the building finish mix of colors. It can even be uses as a complete contrast of color within mixed materials and finishes design schemes in some modern building trends. For those wanting more options on bronze colors or other colors altogether, Mapes offers a large selection of standard Kynar colors as well as custom color matching options. Mapes can also provide stamped engineering calculations on any design we fabricate and for any location in the US.

Professional Office Building

This new building was designed by the primary tenant for their use.
Project Location: Camillus, NY
Project Designer: St. Germaine & Aupperle – E & A , Camillus, NY
Canopy Style: Mapes Superlumideck with hanger rod supports.
Dimensions: Forward curved style @ 4’6″ projection X 16′ wide.
Materials: All rust free extruded aluminum.
Finish: Mapes standard bronze baked enamel.
Deck: Mapes 2 ¾” “standard” style.
Fascia: Mapes standard 8′ tall “J” style on 4 sides.
Drainage: Standard front scupper drainage.
Canopy wall attachment points: Thru bolts at upper hanger rods and lower attachments with stainless steel assembly bolts and fully detailed shop drawings for approval.

Labenz & Associates, CPA 

Existing Professional Office Building – Updated Entrance Canopy. This is a one story building in a newer upscale suburban office park.
Project Location: Lincoln, NE
Canopy Style: Mapes Super Lumideck, post supported style.
Dimensions: Forward curved style – 8′ projection from wall face to max of canopy arc X 11’6″ wide.
Materials: All rust free extruded aluminum.
Finish: Mapes standard Bronze Baked Enamel.
Deck: Mapes Flat Soffit Style set at right angles to wall.
Fascia: Mapes standard 8′ tall “J” style on 4 sides.
Drainage: Down support posts to grade discharge.
Post & Beam: 4′ x 4′ and 4′ x 7′ respectively.
Canopy wall attachment points: Wall anchors into masonry back up wall. With stainless steel assembly bolts and fully detailed shop drawings for client approval.