FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2006

Cooley Weathertyte® Accents Macy's Landmark Rennovation

PAWTUCKET, RI—As part of the first phase of a four-year plan to upgrade the interior and exterior of their newly acquired State Street building, formerly known as Marshall Fields, Macy’s planned to pay tribute to the beloved historic building by installing black canvas awnings and canopies to the outside of the building.

The awning fabric chosen would need to be beautiful and strong enough to fend off the worst weather of ‘The Windy City’ and further, would need to compliment the historic characteristics of the celebrated building. The material perfectly suited to the task was a new awning product called Weathertyte®, manufactured by Cooley Sign & Awning Products. Weathertyte is a technically advanced waterproof and flame resistant awning material, which offers the look and feel of a woven fabric but has all the benefits of a high performance composite vinyl.

Surrounding the building on three sides, eight hundred yards of black Weathertyte was used to fabricate a total of forty roll-up awnings and three marquis canopies. The fabric was sewn to create vertical seams, which gave the finished awnings the more traditional look Macy’s wanted and the graphics were then stenciled using vinyl paint. The result was a sophisticated fabric-looking exterior for the building and awnings with all of the environmental resistance that a vinyl offers.

The awnings were fabricated by Chesterfield Awning Company, Inc., located in South Holland, Illinois. Mr. Steve Agonis, Production Supervisor for Chesterfield Awning said, “This was the first time we’d used Weathertyte. The material sewed well, was dimensionally stable and cleaned very nicely”.

Mr. Ed Silva, Vice President and Business Manager for Cooley Sign & Awning Products had this to say about Weathertyte, "With the development of Weathertyte, this is a very exciting time for the awning industry. Cooley is pleased to provide a revolutionary product which gives our customers an awning material with the look and feel of a quality fabric but without the limitations of one”.
Chesterfield Awning Company, Inc., is a complete awning provider, including engineering, design and fabrication of commercial and residential awnings. In addition to their South Holland location, Chesterfield Awning, Inc. also has a second location in Chicago called Awnco. Chesterfield Awning, Inc. is currently owned by Mr. Howard Ausema and his son Mr. David Ausema, where they continue a solid reputation of producing quality awnings first established in 1958.

Cooley Group found its roots in Cooley Finishing Company, founded in 1926 to finish cotton cloth into awning fabric. Today, Cooley employs the latest in chemical engineering technology to produce state-of-the-art polymer materials.  The five divisions of Cooley Group are Cooley Sign & Awning Products, Cooley Digital Products, Cooley Engineered Membranes, Cooley Specialty Products and Cooley Building Products. Cooley Sign & Awning Products manufactures a variety of substrates for awnings, backlit signs, banners, as well as other applications. Cooley sign and awning substrates can be seen around the world enhancing the image of many companies such as Boston Market, Exxon Mobil, Dunkin’ Donuts and KFC.