SERVING MULTIPLE MASTERS

How incorporating nine parking best practices boosted a new garage at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Long gone are the days when the drab, utilitarian dorm room sized for a sardine was a rite of passage for an incoming freshman at a college campus. Today’s college student is looking for an interactive, amenity-driven lifestyle that goes beyond academics. Universities are listening and with good reason: Multiple studies, including one by University of California, Los Angeles’ Higher Education Research Institute, have found that students who live on campus have higher graduation rates than those who do not. From state-of-the-art facilities to high-quality student housing, today’s higher education institutions are exploring innovative ways to offer students a more multi-faceted, compelling community environment that not only appeals to the modern student but also positions him or her for greater success.

Buried within this trend is a chronic issue nearly all college campuses face: supporting new growth with efficient parking. Parking for higher education has always been a limited resource, and new construction inevitably consumes existing lots. Therefore, maintaining well-integrated parking is critical to the success of this ongoing campus transformation.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is among the plethora of universities investing in new infrastructure that follows this trend. Currently under construction, the new Student Housing South residential community was envisioned to support the university’s strategic vision to create a vibrant residential campus that connects academic and social lives while enhancing student success. The complex, which will include new dormitories and amenities, will be built on an existing parking lot. Watry Design, Inc. was selected to design a parking structure that would support the project and integrate it with the environment. Among the responsibilities assigned was to ensure that the design followed best parking practices for higher education.

Watry’s goal was to design a parking structure the university could be proud of. It’s about a lot more than just providing parking. To successfully integrate parking, we take into consideration the context of the site from an architectural standpoint as well as walkability. What are the needs of the various user groups? How can we help meet sustainability goals?

From sustainability to modal integration and security, the education parking best practices that follow are designed to address every area of parking as it specifically relates to the needs of higher education. How does your campus parking stack up?

Understand Campus User Groups
A successful parking design requires a thorough understanding of the various user groups on campus. Faculty, students, and special-event parkers all have different needs and use patterns that vary depending on day of the week and time of day. The Cal Poly structure is intended to serve multiple user groups that include administration and visitors in addition to students and faculty, which the design takes into account. The garage provides two-way vehicle circulation with 90-degree parking in a two-column bay configuration. In other words, the Cal Poly structure offers an intuitive route through the garage with parking stalls that are easy to get into and out of. Stair and elevator core locations are easy to locate, whether a patron is a frequent user or first-time visitor.

Consider the Context of the Site
It is important to understand the relationship between a site and its adjacencies to design an effective parking solution. Beyond its effect on the architectural design, this understanding is a driver in determining the physical location of parking within the site. Considerations such as access to and egress from the site, capacity of surrounding streets, and the effects structured parking will have on traffic patterns factored into the design-build team’s decision to locate the garage away from student housing. The Cal Poly site is arranged so that the student housing and ancillary buildings face Grand Avenue, a major circulation road on campus that serves all forms of traffic: private vehicle, pedestrian, and public transit. While creating easy access for all modes of transportation via a rear vehicle circulation road off Grand Avenue, locating the parking structure entry and exit at the rear of the site places prominence on the student housing buildings.

Integrate Modes and Mitigate Conflicts
For education parking to be successful, a network of safe, direct, and attractively landscaped pedestrian and bike paths must connect the various areas of campus. Possibly the biggest challenges in developing these paths are the potential conflicts between pedestrians, bikes, autos, shuttles, and other modes of transit. It is important to protect pedestrians and other modes from more danger-ous modes. In addition, each mode is more efficient when effective design isolates and separates from the others. For example, a pedestrian walkway should be protected from vehicles with bollards or landscaping wherever possible. In the case of Cal Poly, the design team was able to utilize the unique hillside grading of the site to avoid pedestrian and vehicular conflicts. Vehicle entry and exit are located away from the student housing central core at a lower level elevation, while pedestrians head to their destinations via upper grade exits at the opposite side of the structure. This configuration eliminates the conflicts created when pedestrian and vehicle circulation routes cross each other.

Explore Mixed-Use
As campuses densify, combining mixed uses, such as a sports field or other campus facilities, can play an important role in creating a more secure, lively environment. As mentioned above, Cal Poly is incorporating this best practice by wrapping three sides of the parking structure with ancillary functions, such as a small café, community room, and welcome center. This not only integrates the parking structure more effectively into its surroundings but also supports the university’s mission to position its students for higher success by creating a rich, amenity-laden experience that fosters greater connectivity and engagement.

Develop a Parking Management Plan
Every campus needs a comprehensive parking management plan to address peak parking demand periods. University parking facilities are typically at capacity or beyond at the beginning of every quarter or semester and during special events. This results in using 100 percent or more of the parking resources. Having a plan in place to deal with these situations will improve the parking experience for all users. Cal Poly currently has in place a parking management plan, which will be critical for the new parking structure due to its proximity to other buildings, such as the Performing Arts Center.

Connect with Transit
Parking should form a connection point with other modes of transportation. For example, shuttle and bus stops can be incorporated or kiosks providing their location can be integrated. Ample bike parking should be provided. Student Housing South was designed to encourage alternate modes of transportation, from bike racks within proximity of the parking structure and throughout the project to a plentiful network of sidewalks that guide users to their destinations once they leave the garage. There are four bus transit stations within a half-mile of the parking structure that can be utilized to further travel around the campus and San Luis Obispo. In addition, infrastructure is being provided at 15 parking stalls to accommodate future electric vehicle charging stations.

Design with Sustainability in Mind
Sustainable parking design best practices should be incorporated into each solution. Universities can utilize the United States Green Building Council’s Parksmart Certification as a guideline and even achieve certification without adding significant cost to the project. From vegetated swales for stormwater management to LED lighting to the incorporation of renewable energy sources, such as solar panels and geothermal loops, these measures illustrate a campus’s commitment to sustainability. The Cal Poly structure is incorporating a photovoltatic array on the roof level. This will not only help provide additional power but will also reduce the heat island effect of the roof deck. Additional sustainable features that have been integrated into the design are LED lighting and recycled content in building materials.

Incorporate Appropriate Security
Security is a prime concern in all parking structure environments but especially on campuses. Passive security or crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED; see the March 2016 issue of The Parking Professional for more), such as glass-backed elevators, open stairwells, and the elimination of hiding spots behind walls, can be very effective at deterring crime. In addition, active security measures should be considered based on location, such as code blue emergency phones and a video surveillance system. Security features integrated into the design at Cal Poly include stairwells that are open to the garage’s interior; increased visibility gained by eliminating columns that can obstruct views and create hiding places; and installation of of code blue emergency phones.

Provide Clear Wayfinding
Clear wayfinding is a requirement for all campus environments. Informational kiosks and plentiful signage should aid users not only in reaching their destinations but also on return. For example, the elevator and stair towers of a parking structure serve as powerful wayfinding elements. The Cal Poly parking structure provides clear views of the stairs and elevators from any point in the structure, making wayfinding easy and intuitive for both new users and those already familiar with the layout.

By designing well-integrated parking into a campus project, universities can effectively continue to expand and meet the evolving needs of students, faculty, and visitors without sacrificing what is already a scarce resource on nearly every college campus across the country.

MICHAEL PENDERGRASS, AIA, LEED AP, is Watry Design’s associate principal. He can be reached at mpendergrass@watrydesign.com. 

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BEAUTY AND A FUNCTIONAL BEAST

Form and function meet in Sarasota’s State Street Parking Garage

When Sarasota, Fla.’s city planners decided to develop a new parking structure, they saw it as an essential element of the city’s drive to promote economic growth. In fact, the city’s downtown parking master plan is largely designed to enhance the vitality of downtown development by encouraging visitors and employees of local businesses to park in centrally located garages and lots and use pedestrian ways to reach their ultimate destinations. The six-story, 397-space State Street Parking Garage is the second of a series of parking facilities planned for downtown Sarasota.

Ultimately, the parking master plan will provide city planners the flexibility to re-align or reduce the number of on-street parking spaces to increase sidewalk widths and pedestrian activity areas. Also, by centralizing parking, the plan minimizes the amount of parking area businesses need to develop to meet their needs. As a result, developers and building owners can focus their development investments on creating income-producing commercial and residential space rather than parking. In addition to supporting local businesses, this element of the parking master plan is also leading to the development of lower, more attractive, and more functional buildings.

Sarasota’s plan provides a terrific example of how strategic parking planning can help make cities more walkable, business-friendly, and congestion-free. In addition to providing wider sidewalks for pedestrians, the city’s plan also increases and improves landscaping downtown, provides new benches for visitors, and permits restaurants to provide outdoor services on the newly widened sidewalks.

Safe, More Convenient Parking In light of the important role parking is to play in Sarasota’s downtown plan, the primary goal of designers was to create a facility parkers would want to use. This was no small feat, considering the site’s small footprint. The site’s depth of just 105 feet with a 20-foot-wide alley created a significant design challenge. Not only did designers need to create a functional, parker-friendly facility on this small footprint, but they had to do so in a way that would support the development of a planned multi-level office or residential liner building that will be built on an adjacent site to the west of the garage. The design also needed to accommodate a 58,000 gallon stormwater detention vault, which was ultimately tucked under the ramp at ground level.

Finally, the design needed to accommodate the future implementation of a renewable energy program. To this end, the project’s parking consultants from Walker Parking included in the design the necessary infrastructure for the future installation of a photovoltaic system above the top parking level.

The functional design resulted in a two-bay-wide, six-level-high, single-threaded helix structure with parking on one flat bay and one ramped bay. With the exception of two spaces at ground level, that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, all 397 spaces are provided on the elevated floors and provide parking for visitors and employees of local downtown businesses. The deck’s footprint is 298 feet by 105 feet, and site boundary constraints resulted in only one row of parking being included at the ramps. The garage’s columns are typically spaced at 24 feet on center, with 48 feet at the end of bays. The north parking bay is 60 feet wide, and the south ramp bay is 45 feet wide.

Traffic flow is always a challenge in such small footprints. The consultant was able to achieve two-way flow with 9-foot by 18-foot, 90-degree stalls. These dimensions permit safe and convenient traffic flow combined with convenient parking. The typical floor-to-floor height is 10 feet, six inches, except at the ground level, which is 17 feet high to accommodate the 14,000-square-foot ground-level retail shell with a loading dock at the back of the structure. The 10-foot-high ceilings on the parking levels offer a more comfortable, customer-friendly parking experience while enhancing safety by improving visibility throughout the structure.

Access to the garage from State Street on the north is provided by an entry/exit on the east end of the deck. A second entry/exit on the east end is provided from Ringling Boulevard to the south through a 150-foot-long, two-way driveway to the garage. This driveway also
provides access to the alley bordering the south side of the structure, allowing access to the loading dock and utilities beneath the ramp. To allow tight turns for large trucks into the alley, traffic flow in the alley is one way, from east to west.

Pedestrian flow was also an essential design element. To provide the safest and most convenient experience, pedestrians are directed to two separate elevator and stair towers, one at the northwest corner of the deck and the other on the north side near the State Street entrance.

Two final design elements revolved around lighting and security. When it came to lighting, the primary focus of the electrical design was energy efficiency. Designers selected LED light fixtures arranged in locations to provide good light uniformity, exceeding Illuminating Engineering Society standards and providing a safer, more customer-friendly, and more energy-efficient experience. A lighting control system comprised of timers and photo cells further enhances energy efficiency by permitting parking operators to tailor lighting requirements around peak utilization and other considerations. The electrical system is backed up by an uninterrupted power system that provides energy for the emergency lights, and additional safety features include a surge protection system, emergency phone assistance stations, and an elevator recall system.

The electrical design also supports the city’s goal of promoting sustainable energy use with the addition of four electric vehicle charging stations. These stations are located near the northwest stair and elevator tower at the second level.

Security was an equally important design consideration. Passive security features include open stair towers with emergency phones. In addition, the interior of the deck, the stair towers, and the ground-level perimeter are well-illuminated to improve visibility throughout the facility. The design also includes infrastructure to permit future expansion of security elements, including the installation of a conduit for future security cameras at the lobbies of the stair elevator towers and multiple locations throughout the deck.

Tampa-based general contracting firm A.D. Morgan oversaw the construction of the garage, working closely with the development team, the city, and neighboring businesses. The garage structure is cast-in-place post-tensioned slabs, beams, and girders supported on a drilled shaft foundation system. The ground level is slab-on-grade construction placed on compacted fill. The structure’s stair and elevator towers are cast-in-place with conventionally reinforced walls, slabs, and beams with a structural steel gable-framed roof.

Form Meets Function
The State Street Garage’s architecture was a key element of its design. Because of its central downtown location, the garage needed to be attractive as well as functional. As a Sarasota-based architect, Harvard Jolly Architects was intimately familiar with the character of downtown Sarasota and able to design a structure that fits seamlessly—and beautifully—with its neighbors.

The garage’s attractive design presents the classical look of a residential apartment building that perfectly complements the surrounding buildings. The primary north facade along State Street is expressed with precast architectural panels with accented bands around window openings and 12-inch-deep sill ledges with dentils.

The main vehicle entry from State Street is the garage’s architectural focal point. It features precast architectural panels with arches and articulated stone veneers at vehicle and pedestrian entrances. Column panels with column capitals and bases are set in front of the precast panels. The east end of the building is block infill between the horizontal cast-in-place beams, and the east face has a stucco finish with custom foam shapes with polyurethane hard coat for columns, capitals, window surrounds, and cornices. The west elevation of the garage is masonry block infill panels between horizontal cast-in-place beams and vertical columns with no openings or trim to abut the future adjacent liner building.

The structure’s ground floor is designed to house future retail establishments, and the exterior architecture is designed to appeal to customers of these establishments while complementing the rest of the building. Continuous glazing along the ground floor and a combination of canopies and brick pavers for sidewalks with landscaping achieve a presentation that’s accessible and welcoming for pedestrians.

A final architectural accent is provided through landscape architecture. The design, which was  created by Sarasota-based David Johnston Architects, features a combination of palm trees,  shrubs, and deciduous trees to provide an attractive, welcoming environment outside of the parking facility.

Well-Earned Recognition
The State Street Garage has been well-received locally and is already considered a Sarasota landmark. It has also achieved wider recognition, having won two awards from the Florida Parking Association (FPA): the 2015 FPA Award of Merit for Parking Structure Architecture and the 2015 Award of Merit for Parking Structure Design.

BILL SMITH, APR, is principal of Smith-Phillips Strategic Communications. He can be reached at bsmith@smith-phillips.com or 603.491.4280

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UNDER THE DUNES

One-of-a-kind Dutch parking garage named its country’s Building of the Year.

The Royal Institute of Dutch Architects received 125 submissions for its 2016 Building of the Year. The juried contest sees hot competition from all facets of building design, so when the winner was a parking garage, people sat up and took notice. A parking garage? Building of the year for an entire country? You bet—and wait until you lay eyes on it. The underground garage in the small beach town of Katwijk aan Zee is part of a larger effort to protect the village from rising sea levels. That 70-million-euro plan put into play a “dike-in-dune” concept, which buries a wall—and a parking garage—under manmade dunes that look and feel just like the real thing. The two-pronged approach helps protect the town from rising water as waves hit the dunes and their embedded walls and allows the beach to remain a main community focus.

Under the dunes is a garage that was designed to serve the many tourists who visit the town’s sandy shores. The garage is nearly invisible; it was embedded into the surrounding dune environment in a way that was very carefully and deliberately respectful. Those in the know, including Fast Company, call it “incognito architecture,” and it works particularly well for the oblong parking structure. The garage offers plenty of parking for visitors, innovative lighting and design, and lines that led the competition jury to call it an “exceptionally beautiful object” and “virtually flawless.”

The garage was commissioned by the Municipality of Katwijk and designed by architects Royal HaskoningDHV. It contains 663 parking spaces and is largely hidden inside the town’s dunes, which were rebuilt as part of the greater conservation project. By locating most of the parking underneath the natural landscape, architects achieved their goal of strengthening the relationship between the beach and the neighboring village. The organic shape of the dunes was also used to create natural entrances and exits to the structure, easing wayfinding and orientation for drivers and pedestrians, and offer lots of natural light inside. At night, emergency exit lights create beautiful beacons along the shoreline.

Interior lighting and color was used to orient users inside the garage, which is long. Icons were also used in wayfinding for both drivers and pedestrians.

Residents of the town were hesitant when they first heard about the project, but embraced it whole-heartedly when they saw the final results. “People love it,” says Richard van den Brule, MSc, head of the architectural department at Royal HaskoningDHV. He notes that the garage was not only Building of the Year but also won the people’s choice award and an award for best public space.

“For us as a team, the results are really satisfying,” he continues. “During the design and construction stages, we already had a feeling this was going to be a very special project. Now it has become a benchmark for integrated design projects and governance, it’s won several awards, and it’s been published in media around the world.”

GOING UP

Villanova University expands a garage skyward, increasing capacity and campus visibility.

By William F. Kavanagh, AIA, NCARB

As part of the Campus Master Plan implementation at Villanova University, outside Philadelphia, Pa., there was a need for additional parking on campus. Phase 1 consisted of the creation of new surface parking lots and the vertical expansion of the Saint Augustine Center (SAC) garage by two additional levels. Upon their completion, the parking spaces from the existing Pike surface lot were relocated to allow for Phase 2, a new 1,300-space parking garage, to commence. When the Pike Garage is complete, the existing Lancaster Avenue parking lot will be replaced with new residence halls for 1,135 upperclass, undergraduate students. Finally, Phase 4 of the plan will be the construction of a new performing arts center beside the new Pike Parking Garage.

The existing SAC garage, with a capacity of 270 spaces, was increased to 493 spaces during its vertical expansion. This resulted in a net gain of 223 spaces for the university. The original precast concrete garage consisted of two levels: grade plus a supported level. Because the garage is recessed into the sloped site, each flat parking level is accessed directly from grade and not via a ramp.

Challenges
The many challenges associated with this vertical expansion of the existing precast parking garage included:

• Providing new shear walls for the lateral stability of the taller, vertically expanded garage.
• Integrating a new access-ramp connection between the existing and new parking levels.
• Adding a new elevator and new pedestrian bridge for improved accessibility.
• Enhancing the architectural appearance of the expanded garage.
• Guaranteeing crane access around garage perimeter on a tight site.
• Maintaining an aggressive construction schedule.

Design Solutions
The original garage was designed in the early 1990s with reserve capacity to be expanded by one level in the future. An analysis of the existing foundations by the structural engineer and the geotechnical engineer found that a two-level vertical expansion was possible. However, the original design did not provide adequate lateral support for such a two-level vertical expansion. The lateral design criteria had become more stringent under subsequent editions of the building code. New cast-in-place concrete shear walls had to be inserted into the existing precast garage. This required excavation for new shear wall foundations within the existing garage footprint. Micro piles were selected due to the
low overhead working clearances beneath the existing garage floor. In addition, holes had to be cut into the existing floor of precast double tees to allow for shear wall continuity up to the new floors. The cast-in-place shear walls were tied into the existing double tees of the existing supported floor. New precast shear walls were installed on top of this as part of the new precast superstructure of the expansion above.

A new internal ramp was required for accessing the two new upper levels from the existing supported level of the garage. Galvanized steel framing, cast-in-place concrete, and special precast detailing were required to provide a smooth transition between the new and existing garage portions. The initial ramp from the existing flat double tee floor was a speed ramp without parking before transitioning to a lesser sloped ramp with parking.

An elevator and a pedestrian bridge were added at opposite ends of the expanded parking garage. The elevator was provided to allow for accessibility to all floors. The elevator shaft was carefully inserted into an opening in the existing garage that previously accommodated a stair. Careful design and detailing as well as some underpinning of an existing retaining wall at the elevator pit allowed for the elevator to be accommodated within the existing garage footprint without the expense of an external elevator tower. The pedestrian bridge connected the new third level with the adjacent grade for a better and more convenient connection to the heart of the Villanova campus. The bridge spanned
over the sloping site.

Fitting In
The architectural design of the newly expanded parking garage was important to the university. The size of the original two-level garage was obscured by the sloping site and landscaping. The perceived mass of the new expanded garage was much greater and required appropriate architectural detailing to break down its scale and blend more contextually with the campus. Keeping with the collegiate gothic style prevalent on campus, buttressed shaped column covers with integral stone veneer cast into the precast were provided. They provide a three-dimensional quality to the facades, helping to break down the scale of the building. Stone veneer was also added to the shear walls at the ends of the garage. The difference architecturally between the original and the vertically expanded garage is very pronounced and has been well-received by the university’s community.

Sufficient crane access around the perimeter of a garage is essential for a vertical expansion with precast concrete. Typically, for new precast garage construction, a large crawler crane erects the building from within the garage footprint. This allows for the crane to get very close to the structure during erection. With a vertical precast expansion, the crane has to be on the perimeter and reach over the existing garage for erection of the expansion. Instead of a crawler crane, a very large, wheeled, mobile hydraulic crane—a Grove GMK7550, 550-ton capacity crane—was utilized. This crane was required to erect the precast expansion from two opposite sides of the garage. The greater mobility of the wheeled crane versus a crawler crane was beneficial for this reason. Additional site constraints that affected the construction of the expansion included the sloping site, existing trees, and the adjacent railroad tracks. The sloping site resulted in increasing the distance between the road where the crane was located and the garage itself. The longer distance required a bigger crane with a longer reach and lifting capacity. Several trees were removed to allow room for the crane to swing its loads into place during erection. A couple of very large trees were required to remain and required special means and methods to work around.

Finally, the proximity to the adjacent rail lines required special approvals.

An aggressive construction schedule was specially tailored to minimize disruption to the campus and its academic calendar. The faculty and staff who utilized the original garage were displaced during the construction of the vertical expansion. The time the entire garage was closed was reduced by installing the foundations for the vertical expansion with partial closures of just the required immediate area. Also, the use of precast allowed for the schedule to be compressed further. The precast elements were fabricated offsite at the same time the foundations were being installed.

Conclusion
Vertical expansions of existing garages are inherently more complicated than that of new construction. Combining the existing construction with the new expansion required careful coordination. As a result, the construction costs are usually greater for a vertical garage expansion than that of a new garage. However, sometimes building upon an existing asset has the greatest outcome, where the resultant garage is better than the sum of its parts.

WILLIAM F. KAVANAGH, AIA, NCARB, is director of parking design for The Harman Group, Inc. He can be reached at bkavanagh@harmangroup.com.

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