In the spring, when the pandemic hit, Phipps Conservatory was forced to close their facility to the public. As May approached, they were trying to figure out how they could reopen safely. One of the things they realized is that in order to keep people socially distanced, they would need to do at least two things; one was to admit people by timed tickets only, rather than to allow people to come in as they pleased. The second thing was that they needed to find a way to be able to move people through the facility (which is expansive) in one direction only; they didn’t want people to be passing each other as they moved in two different directions. In order to do this, there were two areas where guests would need to leave one building, and walk outside to get to the next building. They wanted a way to provide cover in those outdoor areas in case of rain, and also to provide lighting over those sidewalks.
Initially, they contacted PartySavvy about a long-term rental of walkway canopies / tents for these areas. Because of the unique requirements of these areas, standard size rental tents and canopies didn’t fit the situation very well; that is when we began talking about selling them custom-built equipment. A long term rental wasn’t really practical anyway, cost-wise. We custom designed the tenting that would be needed, and provided them with pricing.
After careful consideration and cost-comparison with building permanent structures instead of tents, Phipps Conservatory decided that purchasing the custom tents would be the most economical solution.
The final custom walkway canopy for Phipps Conservatory featured custom pieces built to allow turns in the walkway canopies, allowing the tent to follow the length of the sidewalks.
This tent also features two sections built on 10′ side poles in order to accommodate existing structures along with lighting installed along the ceiling.
For a more complete understanding of the design of this walkway canopy, please click the CAD drawings below.
