Santa Ana, CA

The city of Santa Ana is located in Southern California, about 35 miles south of Los Angeles and roughly 10 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. As Orange County’s second-largest city and its county seat, Santa Ana is home to a population of more than 310,000 residents across more than 60 distinct neighborhoods, each with its own character and cultural heritage.

Tolar Manufacturing Company recently completed the design and fabrication of 41 custom-built, “papel picado” themed transit shelters for the City of Santa Ana.

Working closely with ND Construction, Inc., Tolar Manufacturing brought to life the vision of Suzi Furjanic, an Associate Planner with the City of Santa Ana Public Works department. Her concept was to embrace the popular Mexican folk art known as “papel picado,” the elaborate designs created from cutting colorful sheets of tissue paper. Suzi’s vision for the transit shelters was to take the rugged steel structure and enhance and soften the lines with colorful acrylic roof panels and other artistic elements. Tolar Manufacturing was up for the challenge of blending form and function so as to not lose the important durable integrity of the shelter while effectively bringing the artistic elements to life.

The shelters are now installed throughout the city, fabricated in four sizes from 14-ft to 27-ft long. Each includes distinct branding elements highlighted by colorfully tinted polycarbonate roof panels to create a Sense of Place™ tying into the heritage and culture of the unique neighborhoods in which each shelter resides. The shelters also include comfortable seating and security lighting that doubles as decorative up-lighting, provided by energy-saving, dusk-to-dawn solar powered LED illumination from valued Tolar partner Urban Solar.

“This design was fun, and challenging, to implement as a steel structure,” said Tolar Manufacturing founder and president Gary Tolar. “I’m really impressed with how our mechanical design engineer, Carlos Garcia, was able to replicate the intricate designs that come from cutting the papel picado into the shadows that cast onto the ground, and how our fabrication team executed the design intent.”