Fiesta Farms Canopy
Christie Street Building Frontage
The new ‘pandemic reality’ has produced a condition that has a substantial impact to the function and expanded role of the grocery store – both inside and outside. On the exterior, the careful control of access and egress has brought an expanded occupation around the edges of Fiesta Farms – people lining up in good weather and bad, daylight and artificial light, and the sharing of the public sidewalk.
The extension of the new canopy to include the Christie Street frontage introduces new opportunities for shelter from wind and rain, light for the late afternoon and evening hours as winter approaches, and a general recognition that this is now a more regularly occupied space. The extension of the canopy provides a built element that brings visual interest to the blank Christie Street wall, along with light, shelter, and the other possibility of signage and information for people waiting in line.
Building Corner at Essex and Christie Streets
The new canopy connects the long wall face on Christie to the building frontage on Essex Street, making a horizontal cover that is modified as it moves around the building. Starting on Christie Street, the canopy sets a scale and height that provides a protected cover for pedestrians and customers in line or walking by. As the canopy moves south towards the Essex Street corner, it steps up in height to mark the intersection as highly visible from pedestrians and Christie Street vehicular traffic. The length of the Christie Street canopy extension can be lengthened or shortened as necessary, but the corner is an important focal point for Fiesta Farms. We are suggesting that this corner can be given more emphasis by placing illuminated panels that could be used for advertisements, exhibit information, or simply more light to highlight the intersection space.
Essex Street – Main Entrance
As it turns the building corner onto Essex Street, the canopy travels across frontage highlighting the building entrance by having a greater height, which steps down again past the entrance. The Fiesta Farms logo are highlighted in the canopy front over the entrance, set into an illuminated back lit screen with white letters on a light green glazing. As the canopy moves west past the entrance, it steps down in height and is ended in a vertical fin wall at the laneway, making an edge to the front plaza space along Essex Street.
Materials and Scale
The canopy is a simple and elegant form, made with a steel and wood construction that is attached off the existing brick face of the building with metal rods. The potential finish and colour could reflect the existing canopy colours with white letters on a green panel/glass. The metal panels have a baked on smooth enamel finish coated with minimal to zero maintenance required. The underside of the canopy is shown as a horizontal wood running parallel to the building face, painted in a warm colour. Lighting runs along this wooden soffit providing illumination around the perimeter of the building, highlighting identified focal points.
As a whole element, the canopy gives a stronger identity to the Fiesta Forms store overall, highly visible on Christie Street from north and south. At the pedestrian scale, the canopy becomes a friendly space that reflects the high level of customer service provided at Fiesta Farms – a sheltered, lit, painted wood ceiling, enabling pedestrians to wait in line in comfort protected from wind and rain.
