Design-Build Sig­nage: Res­i­dences on Aco­ma | Good­bye ​“Boil­er­plate” Specs. Hel­lo Faux Corten Steel + Baltic Birch!

The Chal­lenge: Mov­ing Beyond the ​“Boil­er­plate” Sign Spec

In the archi­tec­tur­al world, a ​“boil­er­plate spec” is often a safe start­ing point, but it rarely cap­tures a build­ing’s soul. For the Res­i­dences on Aco­ma, the ini­tial Plan­ning + Design pro­pos­al served as a base­line. As the building’s iden­ti­ty emerged, the project team real­ized that the stan­dard pack­age did­n’t align with the vision of the Sec­ond Chance Cen­ter or the archi­tec­tur­al intent.

The project shift­ed from a stan­dard ​“spec” sign fam­i­ly to a cus­tomized archi­tec­tur­al sig­nage pack­age designed to com­ple­ment the building’s unique inte­ri­or. This required man­ag­ing an updat­ed scope while keep­ing project time­lines strict­ly on track. Lat­i­tude act­ed as a stew­ard of this tran­si­tion, ensur­ing the increased com­plex­i­ty did­n’t increase project risk.

The Solu­tion: Mate­r­i­al Har­mo­ny + Expert Execution

To align with the build­ing’s inte­ri­or fin­ish­es, we inte­grat­ed Baltic Birch wood as the pri­ma­ry sub­strate. Our goal was to prove com­pe­tence through exe­cu­tion, ensur­ing every floor felt dis­tinct yet part of a cohe­sive wayfind­ing system.

Key Sig­nage Specifications

• Cus­tom Unit IDs: These fea­tured a mul­ti-lay­ered approach using Baltic Birch, pre­ci­sion-fab­ri­cat­ed by Ter­ry Max­field, Latitude’s Direc­tor of Pro­duc­tion. We paired the wood sub­strate with con­trast­ing vinyl unit num­bers for high leg­i­bil­i­ty and a mod­ern, res­i­den­tial aesthetic.

• Inte­grat­ed Func­tion­al Ele­ments: Lat­i­tude cus­tom-man­u­fac­tured and installed small archi­tec­tur­al shelves beside the unit doors, pro­vid­ing a func­tion­al design ele­ment for residents.

• Floor-Spe­cif­ic Wayfind­ing: Each floor uti­lized a unique col­or scheme. Our Envi­ron­men­tal Graph­ic Design (EGD) team of Design-Build Spe­cial­ists includes Kristin Adkins and Anna Pana­da, who led the plan­ning and design process and metic­u­lous­ly orga­nized the sig­nage vari­a­tions to ensure 100% accu­ra­cy through­out man­u­fac­tur­ing and installation.

A Bold Entrance: Faux Corten Steel Canopy

The focal point of the exte­ri­or is the canopy above the main entrance, which fea­tures a faux-corten steel fin­ish. Sus­pend­ed by thread­ed rods, the pan­el fea­tures let­ter­ing mount­ed direct­ly to the face. This pro­vides a rugged, indus­tri­al-meets-refined look that sig­nals the build­ing’s char­ac­ter to vis­i­tors and res­i­dents alike.

Built on Trust + Collaboration

Suc­cess on a project this com­plex is only pos­si­ble through peer-lev­el trust and col­lab­o­ra­tion between the GC, the own­er, and the sign part­ner. ​“The col­or schemes and sign types were so well orga­nized, which helped keep this project accu­rate and on track despite the sig­nif­i­cant shift in scope.” — Justin Halver­son, Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Man­ag­er at Latitude

The Expert Team:

• Project Man­age­ment: Gage, Col­in, and Michael pro­vid­ed the struc­tur­al sup­port need­ed to man­age the scope change with­out los­ing momentum.

• Instal­la­tion: Ken, our lead Col­orado installer, ensured the final exe­cu­tion was seam­less by man­ag­ing the spe­cial­ized mount­ing of the entrance canopy and unit shelving.

The Result: A Smooth Instal­la­tion With Design-Build Process

By engag­ing ear­ly, Lat­i­tude helped the Sec­ond Chance Cen­ter and Cal­con Con­struc­tion deliv­er a high-qual­i­ty, long-last­ing envi­ron­ment for res­i­dents. Even though the project direc­tion evolved sig­nif­i­cant­ly, ear­ly col­lab­o­ra­tion, clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion regard­ing design con­straints, and mate­r­i­al exper­tise cre­at­ed a smooth tran­si­tion through the Design-Build process: Plan­ning, Design, Man­u­fac­tur­ing, and Installation.

Stop set­tling for boil­er­plate specs. Let’s align your design and bud­get ear­ly to elim­i­nate fin­ish-line risks. Con­nect Today!