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

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, a devel­op­ment offer­ing income-restrict­ed homes in Den­ver, 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 orga­ni­za­tion behind the project, Sec­ond Chance Cen­ter, or the archi­tec­tur­al intent.

The plan 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 so that the increased com­plex­i­ty did­n’t increase project risk.

To align with the build­ing’s inte­ri­or fin­ish­es, Baltic Birch wood was cho­sen as the pri­ma­ry sub­strate. Each floor’s sig­nage was designed to feel dis­tinct while still clear­ly being part of a cohe­sive wayfind­ing sys­tem for the entire building.

Key Sig­nage Specifications

• Cus­tom Unit IDs: These signs were fab­ri­cat­ed using a mul­ti-lay­ered approach with Baltic Birch. The wood sub­strate was paired with con­trast­ing vinyl unit num­bers for high leg­i­bil­i­ty and a mod­ern, res­i­den­tial aesthetic.
• Inte­grat­ed Func­tion­al Ele­ments: Small archi­tec­tur­al shelves were cus­tom-man­u­fac­tured and installed beside the unit doors, pro­vid­ing a func­tion­al design ele­ment for residents.
• Floor-Spe­cif­ic Wayfind­ing: Each floor has a unique col­or scheme. Our Envi­ron­men­tal Graph­ic Design (EGD) team of Design-Build spe­cial­ists led the plan­ning and design process and metic­u­lous­ly orga­nized the sig­nage vari­a­tions to ensure 100% accu­ra­cy through­out the man­u­fac­tur­ing and instal­la­tion phases.

The focal point of the building’s exte­ri­or is the canopy above the main entrance, which fea­tures a faux-corten steel fin­ish. Sus­pend­ed by thread­ed rods, the pan­el has let­ter­ing mount­ed direct­ly to its face, pro­vid­ing a rugged, indus­tri­al-meets-refined look that match­es the build­ing’s character.

Suc­cess on a project this com­plex is only pos­si­ble through trust and col­lab­o­ra­tion between the gen­er­al con­trac­tor, the own­er, and the sign part­ner. By engag­ing us ear­ly, Lat­i­tude was able to help the Sec­ond Chance Cen­ter and Cal­con Con­struc­tion cre­ate a high-qual­i­ty, long-last­ing envi­ron­ment for res­i­dents. Even though the project direc­tion evolved sig­nif­i­cant­ly, ear­ly col­lab­o­ra­tion, clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and mate­r­i­al exper­tise made for suc­cess­ful pivots.

Let’s align your design and bud­get ear­ly to elim­i­nate fin­ish-line risks. Con­nect today!