Separate New Sprinklered Addition vs. Existing?

We have a non-conforming fraternity building that wants to build a new two-story covered entrance canopy that ties into the existing roof. It is a heavy timber construction and has no concealed spaces. The fire area is already too large, so our interpretation is this would trigger a sprinkler system in the whole building.

A more lenient interpretation might be to only sprinkler the new portion, and potentially add some rated separation between the existing non-sprinklered building and the new sprinklered entry canopy, but I am not aware and I can't find anything about separation between sprinklered and unsprinklered portions of a building. Would this arrangement be permissible by code?

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