Wildflower is an Empire Homes community in East Brainerd, Chattanooga, built around twelve acres of green space with a clubhouse, resort-style pool and pickleball courts. The mail center sits on the island opposite the clubhouse, where everyone entering the amenity area walks past it.

At 52 feet 2 inches it is the longest single mail center run Mitchell Metals has built. Seventeen cluster box units in one continuous line, carried on a single row of 6×6 posts set behind the boxes.

Why a run this long has to be cantilever

Seventeen boxes is a lot of frontage. Put posts on both sides of it and residents are weaving around structure for fifty feet, and a carrier servicing the units has to work around a post every few boxes. The cantilever puts every post on the back side, so the entire approach face is clear from one end to the other.

It also lets the structure sit tight against the curb line. A run this long needs to follow the geometry of the island it sits on, and a canopy with posts on both sides simply would not have fit the footprint.

Photographed like architecture, because it is

Empire Homes had the finished canopy photographed properly — composed, landscaped, shot in good light against the clubhouse. It is a rare thing in this trade. Most mail centers are documented with a phone on the way back to the truck, and the difference in how the structure reads is immediate.

The frame is extruded aluminum, so nothing on it rusts. It is engineered to ASCE 7-16 wind and snow loads and designed to meet ADA and IBC requirements, with cluster box placement following the USPS Builders/Developers Guide.