CF Shops at Don Mills
CF Shops at Don Mills is a lifestyle centre located in Toronto, Canada. 72 retail stores with a total floor space of 511,824 sq ft provide an all-day shopping experience for visitors. Storefronts face a network of private internal streets organized around a central courtyard.
Due to an increase in street parking congestion coupled with an under-utilized parkade, Cygnus was approached to solve underlying parking challenges on the site and improve the use of the site parkade through better signage.
Through careful consideration, what began as a request to improve signage throughout the parkades evolved into a strategy that encompassed all aspects of site orientation, with specific priority given to the areas outside the parkade. The resulting wayfinding and signage program provides a sense of arrival, orientation within the site, direction to parking, and reinforces the CF Shops at Don Mills brand.
Branded site signage includes exterior signs, street banners, dimensional lettering, parkade entry signage and digital parking pylons. To alleviate street parking congestion and encourage use of the parkade, real-time parking counts are transmitted wirelessly and displayed on the traffic pylons.
As part of the multi-million dollar renovation, Cygnus designed large gateway markers to brand the primary entry/exit points, and to demark the site’s boundaries from sightlines within the property. The gateway structures were custom designed and feature the intricate brand pattern tied into many elements throughout the site.
