Hotel Indigo - Athens, Georgia

A sensibly eco-chic boutique hotel in the heart of downtown historic Athens, Hotel Indigo transformed the downtown cityscape when it opened in 2009 as one of the country’s first LEED gold-certified hotels. Tapping sustainable and salvaged materials sourced primarily within a 500-mile radius of the city, the 130-room hotel features local granite and reclaimed wood from a 100-year-old South Carolina cotton mill. Its Southern farmstead modern style shines in spaces ranging from the Rialto Room, where nationally acclaimed musicians regularly take the stage, to The Gallery, a mini-museum featuring rotating art exhibits, and Madison Bar & Bistro, where guests gather for happy hour cocktails and their newly installed outdoor retractable patio pergola roof cover systems for true outdoor living and events such as weddings and business meetings.

The purpose of the retractable roof project was simple - to provide an oasis for visitors, guests, and employees for shade, heat, sun, glare, UV, heavy rain, and even hail protection, thus the use of Ferrari 502 Precontraint.

Each of the 2 side by side units installed used one continuous piece of fabric and one motor. The system frame and guides specified are made entirely of powder-coated aluminum using the Qualicoat® powder coating process. The frame and guide color chosen by the Architect was RAL 7006, Beige Grey. The marine-grade stainless steel components specified were Inox (470LI and 316) which are of the highest quality and have extremely high corrosion resistance. In fact, the components passed the European salt spray corrosion test as tested by Centro Sviluppo Materiali in Italy. The fabric specified was Ferrari Precontraint 502-8012 White, a fabric that is fire retardant meeting NFPA 701. A grey hood was requested for the rear of each unit to prevent snow, rainwater, leaves, bird droppings, and debris from collecting in the folds of fabric when not extended. A running profile from end to end in the rear of each section was necessary to attach the specified Somfy RTS motors that are installed inside each motor safety box. The client chose to control the units using single-channel remote controls that can operate each unit individually.

What made this project extremely complex was that the 2 units had to be attached to a custom-made steel support posts in the rear and to the top of the existing wall in the front. Dimensions had to be precise and they were!