Mann-Hughes Architecture is a firm based out of Doylestown, PA that focuses on architectural design, interior design, planning and structural design. Their portfolio consists of a number of different designs and plans for educational, professional, industruial, ecclesiastical, recrational, residential, institutional, commercial, and public buildings. One such project for a facility required a marquee sign which Oat Foundry needed to design and fabricate from the ground up. The sign was to feature “the table” on two lines approximately five feet by nine feet and include a wood lathe backing with sheet metal outline and light bulbs spaced evenly within.

The design of a marquee sign is rather straightforward, but careful attention to detail design must be made to keep the fabricators from striking. The most critical design prerogative was to have the robots (the CNC router) do as much work as possible and for this reason features such as light socket holes, mounting hardware recesses and wiring channels were included. With the letters cut from MDF, the wood lath and the sheet metal trim could be cut and bent to the same shape with relative ease and all electrical components fell into their precut recesses.

The architect chose the font, and Oat Foundry did the rest. The letters were CNC routed with holes for Candelabra sockets and channels for wires. Wood lath reclaimed from a West Philadelphia basement renovation were affixed to the front and flush cut by hand to match the letters. After a bath in a fire retardant coating, the letters were populated with the electrical components, wired and then trimmed in sheet steel bent by hand. Finally, the letters were delivered and installed with French cleats.