Challenge:
Divide the exterior space, which had limited headroom clearance due to the café patio’s steel pergola, with doors that allow visibility and natural lighting.
Solution:
A row of three Amarr® 3552 Aluminum Doors (two doors 8’ high x 11’6” wide and one door 8’ high x 11’7”) all with satin black powder coat finish, ClearView Aluminum Strut System and ¼” tempered glass.
Results:
Flexible year-round use of exterior space for café patrons that provides an effective windbreak and fulfills the business owner’s longtime desire to feature industrial-looking architecture and constant visibility of the airplanes.
Application:
Maniac-Mikes Café at Cable Airport
Environment:
Restaurant at Airport
Location:
Upland, CA
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Maniac-Mikes Café at Cable Airport – Upland, CA
While dealing with the aftermath of a devastating business loss, the Stewart family faced one of two choices: either give in to their negative circumstances or maintain a positive outlook toward a brighter future.
Annette Stewart, owner of Maniac-Mikes Café at Cable Airport in Upland, Calif., and her family chose the latter soon after their café was destroyed by fire and smoke. As it turned out, a freezer condenser had overheated sending sparks onto an adjacent rafter.
The fire only compounded the recent loss of the café’s namesake and Stewart’s husband Mike, who passed away a mere four days earlier after a prolonged illness. The Stewarts originally opened the café in 2000 after Mike’s mother told him that he would have to be a “maniac” to open a restaurant, hence the inspiration for the café’s name.
With the café declared a total loss, Stewart, along with her daughter Tina (the café’s general manager) and son Michael Jr., decided they had no choice but to bring the café back to life. Fortunately, a business insurance policy covered everything.
Much larger, flexible patio
That decision led to a 14-month overhaul project which included perhaps one of Stewart’s proudest accomplishments: the café’s new and expanded patio complete with an impressive steel pergola that extends well beyond the patio’s pitched roof.
At slightly more than 1,000 square feet, the patio is three times larger than the café’s previous patio, said Stewart. The patio’s central feature is an attention-grabbing row of three Amarr® 3552 Aluminum Doors that divide the space between where the covered patio ends and the pergola begins.
The doors on either end of the row are 8’ high x 11’6” wide and the middle door is slightly larger at 8’ high x 11’7”. The doors, hinges and track feature a satin black powder coat finish and ¼” tempered glass. The pergola’s paint color also matches the doors for a well-coordinated look.
J-shaped flexible bumpers located at the end of each door track gently stop the doors when café employees raise them using manual chain hoists.
Stewart explained that when she and her family decided to overhaul their damaged café, she knew that she wanted a much larger patio. As for the doors, “they were something that I had wanted for several years primarily because of their industrial look,” Stewart added. She worked directly with her contractor on the pergola design and installation.
As for the doors, John Kinney (owner of JMK Garage Doors), and Entrematic, addressed a few special installation challenges that arose in order for the doors to fit into the pergola’s design and work properly.
In addition to contributing to the patio’s overall appearance, the Amarr doors serve as a useful windbreak for café patrons. The doors help to shield diners from airplane activity as well as strong breezes flowing through the surrounding mountains. They also help to reduce the amount of dust and debris blowing across the airport’s air operations area.
The café can close off the front of the covered patio space when it’s windy, while each side of the patio is still open. Stewart said the café can also warm the closed-off patio space when the weather’s chilly using two permanent gas heaters mounted directly below the patio’s rear ceiling.
Not your typical divided space
“This application is unique because instead of using the doors to divide an interior from an exterior space — as is typical in most restaurant settings — they’re being used solely to divide an exterior space,” pointed out Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales Manager, Entrematic. “When the doors are closed, patrons dining on the patio still have an unobstructed view of planes and airport activity.”
“This application is unique because
instead of using the doors to divide
an interior from an exterior space —
as is typical in most restaurant
settings — they’re being used solely
to divide an exterior space.”
– Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales
Manager, Entrematic
A key design and installation consideration for the Amarr doors was to install their finished side facing the café’s windows and main patio dining area so that the hinges, chain hoist, and other hardware face the air operations area. Stewart said that she also decided against automatic door openers to ensure the patio conveyed a clean look.
The door tracks bend toward the air operations area so that the doors open out instead of in toward the patio ceiling. This made certain that the doors wouldn't interfere with the tongueand-groove wood ceiling’s appearance or interfere with the patio’s ceiling fan and gas heaters.
When the sectional doors are open, they also provide patrons using the patio tables protection from any rain that should move in.
“If we didn’t have the Amarr doors, we wouldn’t be able to use the patio year-round as we can now,” emphasized Stewart. “And even though our old patio had a roof, we’d lose half of our patio business because the area wasn’t fully rainproof. The doors help to provide us a highly flexible use of the patio space no matter what time of year.”
“If we didn’t have the Amarr doors, we
wouldn't be able to use the patio year-
round as we can now.”
– Annette Stewart, Owner, Maniac-Mikes Café at
Cable Airport
High-lift application design
Each Amarr door features four 24” panels. Directly above each door is a fixed 31” full-view clerestory which gives the impression that the doors are five panels high, appearing much taller than they are. And above the clerestory is a wood beam roof truss that contains eight divided triangular glass panels. The amount of glass from floor to ceiling when the doors are either open or closed provides café patrons clear distant views.
“The door tracks extend up to and along the underside of the pergola so the view through the fixed clerestory panel isn’t obstructed,” Johnson explained. “And since the door tracks turn horizontally much higher than the doors “This application is unique because instead of using the doors to divide an interior from an exterior space — as is typical in most restaurant settings — they’re being used solely to divide an exterior space.” – Mark Johnson, FAIA, Architectural Sales Manager, Entrematic “If we didn’t have the Amarr doors, we wouldn't be able to use the patio yearround as we can now.” – Annette Stewart, Owner, Maniac-Mikes Café at Cable Airport 4 themselves, their high-lift design also enables locating the doors’ torsion bars and springs at the top of the fixed clerestory panels instead of at the bottom.”
“We love the Amarr doors and the
flexibility they provide us for our
patrons who are also enjoying the
doors and new patio space.”
– Annette Stewart, Owner, Maniac-Mikes Café at
Cable Airport
Johnson added that the clerestory’s wide top rail also helps to conceal the door components (torsion bars and springs, etc.) when looking from inside the covered patio area out and contributes to that side of the doors’ clean overall appearance.
“We love the Amarr doors and the flexibility they provide us for our patrons who are also enjoying the doors and new patio space,” Stewart shared.
She added further, “JMK Garage Doors was great to work with and did an awesome job for us. As a result, we’ve now blocked the wind and the rain for patrons. And in contrast to our previous patio and its low ceiling, our patrons can now easily take in the entire view from the new patio — the planes, runway and beautiful mountains in the distance — which they couldn’t do before.”
Architect Resources available
To obtain detailed information on Amarr 3552 Aluminum Doors, please visit Amarr Commercial Doors, or contact us at 800-503- DOOR (3667).
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