Chicago sidewalk café

Challenge

Sidewalk café. Previous open-arm fabric shredded. City wanted drawings. Staff used to ‘see how the wind feels.’

Solution

Cassette + hood + Somfy sensor + heaters. Façade photo. Commercial permit path. Retract SOP posted in the kitchen.

Budget

Cassette, hood, sensor, two heaters, anthracite: $7,200–$8,400 configured. Permit drawings from the BIM placeholder then native DWG.

Products

• Solaris Full-Cassette Awning

Results

Two shoulder seasons of seated covers. Winter: retracted. One freight delay on a lake ZIP, communicated same day.

Energy savings

Heaters offset seating, not the dining-room RTU. Exterior shade on the storefront glass still cuts afternoon load — see /blog/restaurant-hvac-shade.