Every architect eventually runs into the same problem: the building doesn’t match the catalog. A roofline curves where a standard canopy expects a straight edge. A facade calls for a shading pattern that no off-the-shelf sunshade offers. This is where custom aluminum fabrication for commercial architecture earns its place in a project, and it’s the work Sharchs Corporation has built its business around since 2011.
Custom fabrication is not a premium add-on to a product line. It’s a different way of working: starting from the building’s actual geometry and performance requirements, rather than from a fixed set of pre-engineered sizes. Here’s what that looks like in practice, and how to know when a project actually needs it.
Custom Fabrication vs. Prefabricated Products
Prefabricated aluminum products, standard sunshade widths, stock canopy depths, and catalog trellis spans work well when a building’s dimensions and design intent line up with what’s already engineered. They are faster to quote and often less expensive. Custom fabrication becomes the better fit when a project has an unusual span, a specific finish that needs to match existing building elements, or a design vision that a standard part simply can’t execute. We cover this tradeoff in more depth in our custom vs. prefab aluminum sunshades guide, but the short version is: prefab solves for speed; custom solves for fit.
Most commercial projects end up using a mix of both. A building might use a standard sunshade profile on typical bays and a custom-fabricated piece where the facade steps back or a mechanical penetration interrupts the pattern.
What Custom Aluminum Fabrication Covers
At Sharchs, custom fabrication isn’t limited to one product category. It applies across our full architectural aluminum lineup:
- Sunshades: vertical, cantilevered, or hanger-rod-supported, built to a specific blade profile, spacing, and outrigger shape.
- Canopies: cantilevered or suspended canopy systems sized for unusual spans or entry conditions.
- Architectural louvers: custom blade angles and spacing for privacy, glare control or mechanical screening.
- Equipment screens: concealment structures sized to fit specific rooftop HVAC layouts.
- Trellis and pergola structures: custom spans and grid patterns for outdoor amenity spaces.
If a design calls for something that doesn’t fit neatly into one of those categories, our team treats it as a design and engineering conversation first. You can see the range of standard product lines this custom work builds on across our full product catalog.
How the Custom Fabrication Process Works
Custom work follows a more deliberate sequence than ordering a stock part, but it doesn’t have to slow a project down when the right team is running it.
- Design intake: our team reviews architectural drawings, renderings, or field measurements to understand the building’s geometry and the designer’s intent.
- Engineering: we determine the structural approach, wind load requirements, and mounting conditions specific to the site.
- Shop drawings and approval: detailed drawings go back to the architect or GC for sign-off before anything is cut.
- Fabrication: production happens in our Fort Worth facility using American-sourced aluminum.
- Finishing and delivery: parts are finished to spec and shipped or scheduled for installation coordination.
Because design, engineering, and fabrication all happen under one roof, custom projects at Sharchs typically still move in six to eight weeks from approved drawings, close to what many manufacturers only offer on standard products.
Why Architects Specify Custom Fabrication Instead of Stock Parts
The name Sharchs comes from “SHade solutions for ARCHitectS,” and that origin shapes how the company approaches custom work. Rather than asking an architect to design around a limited set of standard parts, our engineering team works from the architect’s vision and figures out how to build it in aluminum. That includes matching finishes to existing sunshade or storefront systems, adjusting blade profiles for a specific shading angle, or engineering a canopy to clear an unusual structural condition.
Over more than a decade, that approach has produced over 100,000 linear feet of American-made aluminum shade products, and a substantial share of that work has involved some degree of custom design rather than an unmodified catalog part.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not always. Custom fabrication typically costs more than an identical stock part, but many projects only need custom work on a portion of the building. Combining standard parts where dimensions allow with custom pieces where they don’t often keeps overall project cost reasonable.
At Sharchs, most custom projects move from approved shop drawings to finished product in six to eight weeks, since design, engineering and fabrication happen at the same Fort Worth facility rather than being outsourced to separate vendors.
Yes. Matching new custom aluminum elements to an existing building’s color, texture or finish is one of the most common reasons architects and contractors request custom fabrication rather than a stock product.
Architectural drawings or field measurements, the general performance goal (shading, screening or structural coverage), and any finish or design constraints tied to the existing building are usually enough to start a custom quote.
Start a Custom Aluminum Fabrication Project
If your project needs a shading, screening or canopy solution that doesn’t fit a standard catalog size, contact Sharchs to talk through the design with our engineering team, or review our custom fabrication services page for more on how we approach nonstandard commercial projects.