Cus­tom Exte­ri­or Sig­nage for a New Tree­house Play Area: Secured Entrances and Donor Recognition

Iowa Arboretum’s Fam­i­ly Engage­ment Com­mit­tee sought a way to expand its vis­i­tor demo­graph­ic and attract younger fam­i­lies. Tree­house Vil­lage is open to the pub­lic after a suc­cess­ful cap­i­tal cam­paign and over a year of construction. 

Part­ner­ing with our friends at Con­flu­ence Land­scape Archi­tec­ture, their vision was for a woodsy-designed entrance that incor­po­rat­ed donors, wel­comed vis­i­tors, and aligned with the tree­house vibe. With Con­flu­ence and our in-house design and fab­ri­ca­tion experts, the col­lab­o­ra­tion brought the vision to life using our faux rust process on rout­ed alu­minum. Care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion was need­ed to ade­quate­ly install the ¼” thick CNC flat-cut ​“rust­ed” tree to this near­ly 8‑foot-tall secured gate that opens when a guest scans the QR code. 

Out­door Donor Recog­ni­tion Wel­comes Visitors

Flank­ing the rout­ed tree is a 36” wide cus­tom donor wall built for the out­doors and an 18” wide ver­ti­cal ​“ENTRANCE” pan­el. The donor names are dig­i­tal­ly print­ed direct­ly on the pan­el to ensure the best pos­si­ble weath­er­ing for the exte­ri­or con­di­tions of this loca­tion. On the oth­er side, the ​“ENTRANCE” sign has rout­ed let­ters and is backed with a nat­ur­al alu­minum fin­ish pan­el for a nice con­trast. The same type of sign, but reads ​“EXIT ONLY,” is the last thing guests see when they leave. 

The effort put into this nat­ur­al playscape, from its design to its mate­ri­als to the extra touch­es of the sig­nage, shows a thought­ful design and the intend­ed respect for nature. 

Have ques­tions or need to know more about exte­ri­or sig­nage capa­bil­i­ties? Con­tact us anytime!