An airport concourse, a shopping centre atrium and a museum lobby share something a hotel lobby or a single store does not: nobody who works there controls who walks past, how many of them there are, or when. Foot traffic runs into the thousands daily, some venues never close, and the space is what the local building code classifies as an assembly occupancy — the same category as a theatre or an arena. That changes the brief. This guide covers what is specific to that scale: viewing distance, cleaning access on a venue that may run around the clock, constant crowd contact, wayfinding and security sightlines, and how a large order actually gets placed. For the 15 ft-plus category, structure and install mechanics, see our guide to giant artificial trees over 15 feet. For the hotel version of this brief, see artificial trees for hotel lobbies; for single-store scale, see artificial trees for retail stores. For a sense of scale: a UAE mall development reported installing 112 large-format trees — olive, ficus and plumeria between roughly 2.5 and 7.5 metres — with the artisan work alone running around 100 days (regional supplier report, checked 29 August 2026).
How far away will people actually be standing?
In a hotel lobby or a store, most people pass within a few metres of a feature tree, close enough to notice leaf texture. In an airport concourse, a mall centre court or a museum atrium, the tree is usually viewed from well past 10 metres — across a walkway, from an upper balcony, from a queue line. The relevant fact is about the eye, not the foliage: a standard measure of normal (20/20) visual acuity is the ability to resolve a gap of about one arcminute, which at the six-metre eye-test distance works out to roughly 1.75 mm of resolvable detail (Wikipedia, "Visual acuity," checked 29 August 2026). Scale that to 10 metres and the smallest detail a normal eye can resolve is on the order of 3 mm — wider than a synthetic leaf vein. Past that distance, leaf realism is not doing any work; canopy silhouette, colour mass and how the proportions sit against the ceiling carry the design instead.
Weight the brief toward form — canopy width and density relative to the space, trunk lean, colour consistency — over close-up photography, and treat lower foliage density as a legitimate cost lever once the viewer is 10 metres out. Where part of a venue does put people close to the tree — a seating area, a queue rail, a counter — apply the closer-range guidance in our hotel lobby or retail guides to that zone instead.
Does it need to work around the clock?
Airports typically run close to 24 hours; malls and museums usually have public hours with an overnight closure, though common areas can still host after-hours events or overnight contractors. Settle this before the tree is specified, because it decides when anyone can touch it. Cleaning cadence for tall commercial foliage — monthly dusting under 15 feet, quarterly with a scissor lift above that — is covered in our hotel lobby guide and does not change here; what is different at public scale is the access window. A venue that never closes needs an agreed night or low-traffic slot for lift access, signed off by the operator's own security and operations teams, since a lift on a live public floor is a hazard to everyone else using it. A venue with fixed hours can plan cleaning for the overnight closure instead, but still needs to coordinate with whoever else works that floor at night. Either way, the access window belongs in the specification, not sorted out after the tree ships.
What happens when thousands of people walk past it every day?
A tree in a transit concourse or a mall centre court gets leaned on, brushed by luggage and shopping carts, grabbed by children, and — at genuine public scale — carries some real risk of deliberate damage or a leaf going home in someone's pocket, in a way a boutique tree does not. Respond in the specification: keep low-hanging, easily gripped foliage out of the reachable zone, favour a canopy that starts above head height in high-contact positions, and confirm the anchoring handles incidental lateral load from people leaning on a planter, not just static weight — the armature side is covered in the giant-trees guide. Ask the supplier how a spot repair works: whether damaged foliage swaps without disassembling the tree, and whether matching stock exists for your configuration. Budgeting for occasional repair is a normal line item at this scale, not a sign the product failed.
Can it block a sign, a camera, or an exit route?
A large canopy is a physical obstruction, and in an airport, mall or atrium it can sit in front of a wayfinding sign, a security camera's sightline, or a marked exit path. Coordinate the footprint and canopy spread with the venue's wayfinding and security teams before ordering, not after delivery — a canopy that reads as generous in a photo can be a problem once it sits between a gate number and the people trying to read it. Exact clearance requirements around exits, sightlines and security equipment vary by venue and are set by the operator and the local authority having jurisdiction (AHJ), not by a published rule of thumb, so treat any clearance figure a supplier quotes as a starting point, not a standard to design to. What is consistent is the classification underneath the caution: airports, malls and atriums fall under what the National Building Code of Canada groups as assembly occupancies — spaces used by a gathering of people for travel, social or recreational purposes — which is why life-safety and egress items get closer scrutiny here than in a single office (National Research Council of Canada, checked 29 August 2026).
What fire documentation will you be asked for?
That same assembly-occupancy classification is why fire documentation stops being optional paperwork at this scale. A mall or airport landlord's risk team, the project's fire consultant and the local AHJ typically all want to see it, often independently of one another. In Canada the relevant standard for decorative fabrics and films is CAN/ULC-S109, applied through provincial fire codes — Ontario's Fire Code names access to exits within assembly occupancies among the situations it applies to; in the US the equivalent reference is NFPA 701. We do not claim any Eververda product is certified or compliant with either standard. Request test documentation for the specific product, traceable to what actually ships, from every supplier you are considering, ours included, via the quote process, and put it in front of your fire consultant and the AHJ — their sign-off is the one that matters. The full explanation of what the standards test and what paperwork to request is in our guide to fire ratings for commercial artificial greenery.
How does an order actually get placed at this scale?
Almost nobody buying at airport or mall scale is a facilities manager clicking add to cart. The buyer is usually a general contractor, a design-build team, or an FF&E procurement group working from an architect's schematic package, with the tree as one line item inside a larger fit-out. The general shape — schematic layout, then specification and bid, then procurement, then installation against the drawings — is standard commercial FF&E practice, and delays at the procurement stage are consistently flagged as a risk to the wider project timeline, not just to the tree (Tonn and Blank Construction, checked 29 August 2026). Staged delivery follows from that: a terminal expansion or a mall built in phases routinely takes greenery in batches tied to construction milestones rather than one shipment, on the same freight and receiving-dock mechanics in the giant trees guide. Confirm early who signs for delivery on-site — usually the contractor's team, not the venue's facilities staff.
What does Eververda carry at this scale?
Our public-realm range sits inside the broader 15 ft-plus commercial catalogue — 85 products across palms, cherry blossoms, banyans, olives, cedars, willows and ginkgos, detailed in the giant-trees guide. The species most often specified for airports, malls and large atria:
| Species | Public-realm scale | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Palm, curved trunk | up to 20 ft | from $2,787.99 CAD |
| Banyan / ficus | 13 ft | quote-priced |
| Cherry blossom, event grade | 7 to 22 ft | from $2,507.99 CAD |
| Ginkgo, hotel and lobby grade | large-format | quote-priced |
A 20 ft curved-trunk palm is priced from $2,787.99 CAD — for the full palm price ladder by height, see what artificial palm trees cost. A 13 ft banyan/ficus is quote-priced, since canopy spread and trunk configuration move the number too much for a flat price to be honest. Our cherry blossom line runs 7 to 22 ft from $2,507.99 CAD, one of the few species here with open entry pricing. Ginkgo is harder to source at genuine feature scale: our natural-wood-trunk ginkgo built for hotel and lobby display is quote-priced. Every order over $3,000 CAD goes through the quote process, where configuration, freight and fire documentation get handled in writing before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
Do trees in airports and malls need to look as realistic as a residential tree?
Not in the same way. Most public-realm viewing happens past 10 metres, beyond what normal vision can resolve as leaf-level detail. Canopy silhouette, colour mass and proportion to the ceiling carry the design at that range, so specify for form first and treat close-up realism as secondary unless the tree sits somewhere people pass within a few metres of it.
Who decides where a large tree can be placed in a mall or airport?
The venue operator and the local authority having jurisdiction, working from the project's fire, security and wayfinding consultants. Placement has to clear sightlines to signage, cameras and marked exit routes, and clearance requirements vary by venue rather than following one published standard — this is a coordination step with the operator, not a spec you set alone.
How do you clean a large tree in a building that never closes?
You schedule around it rather than around normal hours. A 24-hour venue needs an agreed night or low-traffic slot for lift access, coordinated with the operator's security and operations teams, since a lift on a live public floor is a hazard to whoever else is using that space. A venue with fixed hours can usually clean during the overnight closure instead.
Does public foot traffic actually damage large artificial trees?
It can. Brushing contact, leaning, luggage and carts, and occasional deliberate damage are realistic at tens of thousands of daily passersby in a way they are not for a boutique tree. Keeping delicate low-hanging foliage out of reach, anchoring for lateral load, and confirming spot-repair options with your supplier are the practical responses.
Who actually places the order for trees at airport or mall scale?
Usually a general contractor, a design-build team, or an FF&E procurement group, not a facilities manager buying direct. The tree is specified, bid and procured as one line item inside a larger fit-out, often delivered in stages tied to construction milestones rather than as a single shipment.
External facts checked 29 August 2026. Eververda prices are CAD and current as of 29 August 2026; quote-priced items are confirmed against your site through the quote process.