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SGIA Canal Street Initiative Reaches Important Milestone
Fairfax, Virginia—For years, the former Woolworth’s building on Canal Street in downtown New Orleans has been empty and boarded-up. But now, the building highlights the latest innovation in specialty imaging and panel installation thanks to the SGIA Canal Street Initiative.
The community-building initiative, which has received generous support and services from more than forty company volunteers, was created to help enhance Canal Street’s image as the major downtown artery goes through reconstruction.
The latest phase of the initiative included an installation of 33 large-format graphic panels over the building located on the corner of Canal and Rampart Streets. SGIA President/CEO Michael Robertson said it was a complicated endeavor.
“The city of New Orleans asked there be no screws in the Woolworth’s building or along its sidewalks because the building is a protected landmark, and that presented our company volunteer with quite a dilemma,” Robertson said. “But it also helped show how resilient and resourceful specialty imagers are because the panels are up and look outstanding.”
To install the panels over the Woolworth’s building, employees with Digital Imaging Group LLC (Flowood, Mississippi) printed the graphics on vinyl and applied them to an aluminum composite material that could be mounted on the building surface without using screws.
Digital Imaging Group, a graphic design and printing services company, had its installation team cut and mount the panels on-site at the same time because of the building’s various contours. “It was a good thing to do and we enjoyed the challenge,” said Digital Imaging Group President Mitch Wolverton.
So far, the SGIA Canal Street Initiative has installed more than 100 graphic panels on buildings along Canal Street, from the French Quarter to Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Volunteer companies are set to carry out the last installation phase at the Audubon building. The installation will involve multiple panel applications and “super graphics” that cover a more than 224.8 square meters (2,420 square feet) of the building.
Find more information on the project, its volunteers and pictures of the installations at SGIA.org, Keyword: NOLA.
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