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The Feeling: We’re in Kansas now!

Case Studies, Features | September 1, 2022 | By:

Overland Park, Kan., is the second largest city in its state, as well as within the Kansas City metro area. The city’s website claims it is “America’s largest inhabited park,” and it feels like it if you stand in any open field and look northeast toward downtown Kansas City where the green-glass iconic towers of corporate hubs beckon almost like Dorothy’s Emerald City of Oz. As in that classic story, Overland Park is a pleasant mix of rural and urban, yet lies less than three miles from the border between Kansas and Missouri.

Nestled neatly in a corner defined by two major freeways—U.S. 69 (running north–south) and Interstate 435 (running east–west linking both states)—is a comfortable neighborhood dotted by a number of senior and assisted living communities, and it’s obvious why these facilities chose this relative Eden: less congestion, yet close to the central twin cities of Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.; it is easy to get anywhere in the region from here.

Village Shalom is a cosseted retirement community enjoying a new sheltered patio that serves the senior facility dining hall as well as provides fresh air for socializing. Designed by SFCS Architects, Roanoke, Va., with Lawrence Fabric & Metal Structures, St. Louis, Mo., this trellis canopy features a rafter and purlin grid woven with 15 fabric panels (each approximately 2 by 20 feet) that cast a soft shade that encourages the safe mingling of residents and family guests.

The custom freestanding canopy measures 32 feet 2 inches by 22 feet 1.5 inches and is composed of aluminum tube rafters supporting 12 rows of aluminum tube purlins. Eight 10-by-10-inch aluminum support posts are anchor bolted to the concrete patio slab. Fabric used is solution-dyed polymer FIRESIST with an NFPA 701 rating from Glen Raven Custom Fabrics LLC.


Project data

Client: Village Shalom, Overland Park, Kan.

Architect: SFCS Architects, Roanoke, Va.

Project Manager/Fabricator/Installer: Lawrence Fabric & Metal Structures, St. Louis, Mo.

Fabric: FIRESIST, off-white, from Glen Raven Custom Fabrics LLC

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