Notebook / The Stewart Cannery Feature Walls
April 17, 2025
Author: Samantha Siliezar | Architectural Designer, SSDP
IMPORTANCE OF WAYFINDING
Wayfinding is a process by which people orientate themselves and navigate in space along a pathway. It is an incredibly important design strategy in large buildings. The Stewart Cannery is a large multifamily affordable housing project sited on 1.55 acres (comparable size to a football field) of a former Del Monte Cannery dating from 1915. For residents to easily navigate and “find their way” through the new building, we designed Feature Walls, to be located at each elevator lobby on floors 2-6 for residents to have a unique visual identifier of their floor and location in the building.
At Saida + Sullivan Design Partners we strive to be more than Architects. Our website home page shares that we are also artists, collaborators, and activists. Our proactive mission was key to overcoming the challenge we were presented with when our original strategy for the feature walls needed to be changed due to budgetary constraints.
Diagram of the Feature Wall Locations
INSPIRATION FOR THE FEATURE WALLS
The project is located in Santa Rosa’s Historic Railroad Square district. The original Santa Rosa Del Monte Cannery building from 1915 was a local fruit and vegetable packing site. Our design and interiors concepts were inspired by the historic references as well as Sonoma County’s thriving agricultural production. Since the project has such a rich history, we designed the Feature Walls to pay homage to the agriculture and historical context of the site. The fruit imagery on the labels shown below and wooden crates the fruit would have arrived in were ultimately the inspiration for the Feature Wall designs.
Santa Rosa Cannery Pre-Demolition
Rose City Canning Co. labels. Courtesy John C. Burton, photography by Don Silverek
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Reinspired by history and imagery of the Santa Rosa Cannery, we concluded that each Feature Wall should be unique and represent a fruit or vegetable that was canned in the original cannery or locally sourced in Santa Rosa. After discussing various ideas, we decided to produce enlarged abstracted imagery of fruits or vegetables on acrylic panels.
COLLABORATION - IMAGERY PIECE
After researching various companies, we reached out to LightSource, a digital imaging and fine art printing studio located in San Francisco. The studio specializes in producing the highest-quality custom fine art printing on various materials. The LightSource team informed us that the imagery we created could be printed onto a large acrylic panel. We decided to move forward with the LightSource team since they are a local company and shared our enthusiasm for this project.
COLLABORATION - WOODEN ACCOMPANIMENT
While in the process of developing the design, we met Sasha Plotitsa, the founder of Formr, and his team. Our office was interested in learning about the company, so Sasha invited us to tour Formr’s studio. During our site visit, we learned about their company ethos, production process, quality control, and saw the products made by the team members.
Saida & Sullivan Design Partners Team Formr Shop Visit on 06/07/2024
From: Sasha Plotitsa | Founder | Formr
“At Formr, we are driven by our mission to provide second chances to both people and the planet. Through the creation of thoughtfully designed objects, we give disadvantaged communities a fresh start while breathing new life into construction remnants that would otherwise go to waste. This project was a perfect embodiment of that mission.”
Our team was moved by their mission, and after seeing their product designs, we knew we wanted to collaborate with the Formr team. During our Feature Wall design development stage, we felt that the addition of a wood piece from Formr would be a great opportunity to collaborate. The imperfections of the upcycled construction debris were a great remembrance of the true dimensional wood roof planks and framing that the original cannery had before demolition. It also serves as an abstracted reference to the wooden crates that the fruit and vegetables would have arrived in. Incorporating the upcycled wood into the Feature Walls also picks up on the theme of reclaimed wood various elements of the overall project including the community room, entry lobby and unit entry signage.
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT: WOOD ACCOMPANIMENT
We shared with Sasha the history of the project and our inspiration to include fruit and vegetable imagery. In our initial coordination meeting, we decided that the design would emulate the original cannery’s crate processing. Sasha presented various iterations that we reviewed and vetted together (see below).
Former Design Iterations
Selected Formr Design
The final design was chosen because we appreciated the shadows of the various depths and sculptural quality of the wooden accompaniment. After reviewing mockups of the final design style, we all agreed on two versions that were the best fit for the feature walls. The two versions are categorized as a lighter wood and darker wood version. For the lighter wood version, the pieces remain in their existing wood tones and are then sanded and varnished to produce a refined product. To create the darker wood version, the pieces are charred, brushed, and oiled. The different versions will complement the various fruit and vegetable colors printed on the acrylic panels.
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT: COORDINATION OF THE INTEGRATION OF BOTH PIECES
While our design process with Formr was getting solidified, we coordinated a meeting with the entire design team: Formr, LightSource, SSDP, and The John Stewart Company (owners). In the meeting we discussed how the acrylic panel and Formr piece will interlock to be our final Feature Wall product. As a team we discussed various details from imagery to installation. We agreed the acrylic panel dimensions would be 3’-0” by 6’-0” mounted by 8 standoffs (4 on each vertical side) offset by 1” for stability. The Formr piece, a singular side piece, would be installed adjacent on the right side of the panel and mounted by French cleat. When discussing imagery, the LightSource team shared that to produce the highest quality imagery on a large-scale acrylic panel, the image file should be approximately 27 MB. Sourcing the imagery at that large of a file size became a challenge.
LightSource Site Visit on 09/25/2024
PROCESS ON MAKING THE IMAGERY ARTWORK
After researching many websites that sell imagery, we found that images of fruit or vegetables at that file size are rare. For this reason, I started gathering photos of different fruits and vegetables online to work on image manipulations in efforts to abstract the images. The images were edited to depict the color variations as shapes.
After completing a few examples, we shared our artwork iterations with the The John Stewart Company team and they were pleased and appreciated the abstraction of the imagery. Once LightSource confirmed that the images can be printed on the acrylic panels, we reviewed the test prints and a mockup for final approval.
Left: Original Image | Right: Final Artwork
START OF PRODUCTION
At this point we had finalized the feature wall designs and I then proceeded to work on technical details for LightSource and Formr to reference during their production process. The details were created in collaboration with our teams from Formr and Lightsource.
After issuing the technical details, the design team proceeded to produce the pieces.
FORMR PRODUCTION
See below for an explanation of the production process provided by Formr team.
From: Sasha Plotitsa | Founder | Formr
“This was a fun yet somewhat challenging project for Formr, as we had never worked on this type of art installation before. While it may appear simple, the process of selecting the right-sized construction remnants to create a cohesive, unified piece proved to be quite complex.
Once the appropriate sizes were chosen, the "blocks" moved on to one of two possible next steps. The first involved attaching the blocks to a back panel, followed by sanding, staining, and varnishing the assembled pieces.
The second option, after affixing the blocks to the back panel, was to char the wood and use a metal brush to remove the cellulose between the grain, creating a textured surface with raised grain. We then applied a stain, followed by a non-toxic resin and varnish to soften some of the extreme texture.
The true highlight of the project was watching how the printed art seamlessly integrated with the wood elements on the wall, bringing everything together beautifully.”
LIGHTSOURCE PRODUCTION
The acrylic panel is purchased from another vendor per our requested dimensions (36”x 72”). The vendor proceeds to drill the holes for the standoffs and the edges are flamed to achieve a polished finish. Once the vendor has finished this process for all 10 pieces, the panels are sent to LightSource for printing. See below for an explanation of the printing process provided by the LightSource team.
From: Sam Hoffman | Founder | LightSource
“LightSource printed the Cannery art work pieces directly onto Plexiglass using our UV curable flatbed printer. We placed a clear piece of Plexi 36" x 72" on the bed of our printer and then sent the digital image of the artwork to the printer to start printing. The print head is attached to a large horizontal carriage that prints the piece in a series of passes that slowly create the image one small tiny section at a time. The sprayed on inks sit on top of the Plexi and are instantly dried by a strong ultraviolet light on the print head as it's printing. Each of the 10 prints took about an hour to make.
The printed side of the piece is turned towards the wall so the clear side of the 1/4" thick Plexi faces the viewer giving the art a depth and luster when viewed through the Plexi. UV prints are a unique and striking way to display art in many viewing environments for residential, commercial and art galleries.”
LightSource Team Handling One of the First Printed Acrylic Panels
INSTALLATION
Midstate Construction, the project’s General Contractor, generously volunteered to handle and install these important pieces following our details package. Additionally, they referred to the location diagrams which specify the location of each unique Feature Wall Imagery and its corresponding Formr piece type. We coordinated the imagery color with Formr so it would complement the wood color scheme for the whole Feature Wall to be cohesive.
Midstate Construction Team (Wilfredo, Jonathan, Kyle) Installing the First Feature Wall.
The Midstate team proceeded to install the others in the following days, and by the next week all of the Feature Walls were installed. The John Stewart Company regional manager as well as the property management team on site were happy to see the final installations and were complimentary of the outcome. They shared their excitement with adding custom art pieces honoring the history of the site and context of the region to the new building.
FINAL TAKEAWAYS
After reflecting on the Feature Wall design process and installation, I am grateful to have collaborated with two dedicated teams, LightSource and Formr. Each product was made with high craftsmanship, and viewing it all together, the pieces are cohesive and in tune with the building and its history. We are also appreciative of The John Stewart Company team being supportive and embracing the artwork and innovative process.
From: Don Lusty | Director of Development | The John Stewart Company
“I loved the collaborative nature of this project. Saida & Sullivan engaged us in each step of the process, early discussions with the designer and fabricator of the wood piece elements at Formr, meeting at LightSource SF studio to review options for materials and printing, and review and input on the images created by Saida & Sullivan. All of which resulted in the creation of beautiful and unique panels that provide elements of warmth and surprise in a large multi-family building. I especially loved the alignment of Formr’s mission with the development of affordable housing.”
In the end, having to pivot from the original idea for the Feature Walls due to cost constraints, offered us a new opportunity to work with other artists and create pieces unique and truly authentic for The Stewart Cannery affordable housing and come in on budget. The process was very collaborative and rewarding for everyone involved and resulted in art pieces that are both beautiful and serve a function.
Final Installed Feature Walls
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