Tag Archives: safety

Member News: Conduent Transportation and Hayden AI Announce Technology Partnership to Improve Bus Lane Performance and Traffic Safety

Conduent Transportation and Hayden AI Announce Technology Partnership to Improve Bus Lane Performance and Traffic Safety


Member News: Populus Announces new partnership with the U.S. DOT to improve traffic safety

POPULUS PARTNERS WITH U.S. DOT TO LEVERAGE INNOVATIVE DATA TO IMPROVE TRANSPORTATION SAFETY

The U.S. Department of Transportation and Populus have joined forces to harness mobility data to reduce crashes and traffic fatalities.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.

Populus, the industry-leading platform for cities to manage transportation and mobility services, will partner with the U.S. DOT to identify opportunities to harness data from some of the 45 million trips it has already processed from shared bikes, electric bikes, and electric scooters to facilitate micromobility management.

The main goal of this initiative is to deliver departments of transportation with new digital and predictive solutions that decrease traffic fatalities on U.S. roads, which have increased at alarming rates, particularly among cyclists and pedestrians. Populus will work with the U.S. DOT and strategic partners to leverage big data from micromobility to reduce the risks of crashes and improve transportation safety outcomes. Populus will also use its data from representative surveys in 18 major metro areas to demonstrate the value in qualitative data collection related to safety issues. These new data sets will augment existing data sets that inform transportation safety analyses. The initiative will aggregate data in representative cities in the United States, from major metropolitan areas to more auto-oriented cities with lower population densities, to provide insight into the new data sources that can be broadly applied to different geographies.

The U.S. DOT’s Safety Data Initiative aims to evolve from retroactive to proactive analysis. By integrating existing and new data sources, the U.S. DOT hopes to identify and address emerging risks from new modes and patterns of transportation so that they can intervene more quickly to save lives. By moving towards predictive analysis, the U.S. DOT hopes to reduce the number of fatalities that occur on U.S. roads each year.

“Populus is excited to work with the U.S. DOT on the Safety Data Initiative to provide novel and actionable insights from previously untapped data sources,” said Regina Clewlow, Populus co-founder and CEO. “Identifying new exposure risks early is incredibly important to create safe and sustainable streets, especially as new modes of transportation are proliferating at a faster pace than we have seen in recent history.”

About Populus

The Populus platform helps cities and private mobility providers deliver safe, efficient, and equitable streets. Populus is a comprehensive digital solution that empowers cities to manage their streets and curbs, by leveraging new data from mobility operators (shared bikes, scooters, cars and other fleet vehicles). Founded by transportation PhDs from MIT and UC Berkeley, the Populus platform is trusted by cities around the world, from Baltimore to Tel Aviv to manage the future of transportation. Learn more at populus.ai

IPMI Webinar: Curbing COVID-19 at the Curb, presented by Matthew Darst, Conduent Transportation.

Curbing COVID-19 at the Curb

Matthew Darst, JD; Director of Curbside Management; Conduent Transportation

Register here for this webinar.

Or purchase the entire 2021 professional development series bundle.


How we think about traveling and commuting in the cities where we work and live has changed dramatically with the spread of COVID-19 . We drive less, eschew public transportation, and are less likely to use shared mobility devices.  This new definition of mobility has exacerbated declining municipal revenues. Cities and states face a unique challenge: stimulate local economies and generate revenue all while working to reopen responsibly to prevent new hot spots of infection and protect public health.

Curbside technologies offer unique solutions to help fund government programs while safeguarding the public. Curbside technologies can help monitor and mitigate viral spread, provide economic relief to constituents, and create a path for municipal revenue recovery. Cities have an opportunity to quickly pivot and utilize metered parking, permit parking, citation issuance and processing, and data science to achieve critical municipal goals.

Attendees will:

  • Identify curbside strategies for reducing the risk of contagion, providing relief to customers, and helping fund critical municipal goals.
  • Assess curbside data for its effectiveness as an early indicator of people congregating/flaunting social distancing guidelines, the need for enforcement, and the spread of COVID-19.
  • Detail best practices and measure the effectiveness of amnesty and relief programs for constituents and revenue recovery efforts.

Offers 1 CAPP Credit towards application or recertification.


Presenter:

Matthew Darst, JD; Director of Curbside Management; Conduent Transportation

Matt Darst, JD, oversees Conduent Transportation’s analytics team, helping cities use data to better manage curbside resources to promote social equity, improve pedestrian safety, and increase physical distancing during the pandemic. Prior to joining Conduent, he served in the public sector for 16 years.

Register here.

Parking Lots, Public Spaces, Social Distancing, and Safety

By Rob Reiter

Six months into dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans are finding ways to keep commerce moving amid many restrictions on use, occupancy, and physical spacing.  In addition, the sharp drop in the use of public transportation has increased the pressures for re-purposing some very valuable real estate — curbs, parking lots, and parking structures.

Restaurants are expanding out onto sidewalks and curbside locations all over the United States; more than 8,000 permits have been issued in New York City alone.  Exposure of diners and waitstaff to passing vehicles has already been documented with security camera footage from more than a half-dozen injury accidents since late June.

Restaurants are also expanding into their off-street parking areas–physical distancing requirements along with the attraction of fresh air and sunshine for people who have been staying home for so long have made such arrangements very popular. Some restaurants are handling this better than others.

Retailers of all stripes have jumped onto the curbside bandwagon at shopping malls, regional centers, and basic strip centers.  Companies providing services for retailers report doubling and re-doubling of retailers offering it along with customers taking advantage of the convenience and safety that the service offers.

I expect that 2021 will see the start of a national campaign where “Share the Curb” will become a battle zone between restaurants, retailers, rideshare providers, and local merchants like salons and small retailers who want to keep parking near their stores convenient for their customers. Read more about what this means for the parking industry and why safety is a big concern in this month’s issue of Parking & Mobility magazine.

Rob Reiter is co-founder of the Storefront Safety Council.

COVID-19 and Our Industry

COVID_19 P&M Parking IndustryCampuses have emptied out. Hospitals are busier than ever. Municipalities are trying to help communities under shelter-in-place orders. And nobody knows when airports will get back to normal.

COVID-19 has affected parking and mobility in more ways than we can count, from revenue to payroll to services to security—and essential vs. non-essential has turned out to be incredibly complicated. In this month’s Parking & Mobility, we talk with professionals from all facets of the industry about how the virus has affected their operations and their people, how they’re all reacting, and how everyone’s looking ahead to the future in the middle of it all.

Read the whole story here. And then join the conversation during an upcoming online Shoptalk  or on Forum.

Reshaping Parking

2020-04-07 IPMI blog postBy David W. Burr

The Coronavirus crisis has thrown our lives into disarray and has shaken up our industry. While the economic impact will linger, the public health crisis will likely pass in a matter of weeks. But even as it passes, it will be important that we as an industry learn from this crisis. This pandemic provides a stark reminder that people are susceptible to illness, and we should endeavor to find ways to minimize the risk.

The parking process exposes people to many common touchpoints, forcing drivers to touch surfaces that others (often many others) have already touched. This is how illness spreads, and as we are learning during this pandemic, viruses can live for several days on surfaces. This is an important issue, not just now, but in normal times too. We are constantly coming into contact with flu and cold viruses as well as many types of bacteria. Perhaps we can reduce this risk within parking facilities.

As a parking facility designer, I’ve always considered safety to be one of the most important design elements. Until recently, though, these types of healthcare issues weren’t part of the equation. So, the question is, how can we reduce the risk of viruses being introduced to high-use surfaces with the structure?

Technology can play an important role. There are a number of technologies already in use that can reduce touchpoints. Perhaps the most common and useful are frictionless parking suites that use LPR to recognize a vehicle as it enters and exits, and automatically bill the driver’s credit card. These suites eliminate the need to stop and pull a ticket or physically pay at exits. These suites can be installed during a garage’s initial development, or as part of a retrofit.

There are also technologies that allow parkers to reserve a space and pre-pay before they leave the house or use their cell phones to pay while they are at the parking facility. Pre-booking and mobile payment platforms don’t just promote public health, but they also make parking more convenient and they don’t cost owners a penny to offer.

From a design point of view, the most common touchpoints are in elevators and elevator towers, stairways, and door handles. It’s difficult to eliminate these types of touchpoints since people need to push elevator buttons, use railings as they climb stairs, and open doors. However, there are materials, such as copper, that actually kill viruses and bacteria. Perhaps we should start sheathing touchpoints like stair railings, door handles, and even elevator buttons with copper. While copper is more expensive to use than stainless steel or plastic, the public health benefits may make it worth taking on the cost.

The Coronavirus crisis has disrupted our lives, but hopefully, it is also making us look at parking in new, more creative ways. Ultimately, even when this crisis is over, these types of solutions will continue to provide public health benefits.

David W. Burr is parking planning director with Rich & Associates.

An Automatic Winner

A Philadelphia project adds automated parking and gains fast loyalty with residents.

By Ian Todd

PRESCRIBED PARKING MINIMUMS and concern about the anticipated effect of TPP article P&M Automatic winnerautonomous vehicles (which some would argue is overhyped) may help form developers’ views on the importance of parking. However, some developers view parking, or rather fully automated parking, as an essential amenity in their developments and have even found it to be the amenity buyers value the most. One such developer is Scannapieco Development Corporation (SDC) based in Philadelphia, Pa.

SDC recently implemented an 86-space fully automated parking system in its 500 Walnut project. 500 Walnut, a 26-story residential tower at the corner of Philadelphia’s Fifth and Walnut streets features 35 condominium residences and an impressive list of high-end amenities that make it one of the city’s most exclusive, luxurious residential projects to date.

The 500 Walnut Project Targeting the ultra-high-end residential market, SDC has had the ongoing record of the highest condominium sale price in the city for almost 10 years. To help to ensure this project’s success, SDC looked to improve its list of high-end amenities for 500 Walnut by implementing an automated parking garage. SDC sought a vendor that could provide a system that used multiple pieces of equipment to park and retrieve vehicles, providing greater system redundancy, which minimizes system downtimes and increases convenience for residents. The system also had to provide full support services
such as 24-hour remote monitoring and support and the ability to be onsite within a very short timeframe should an issue arise.

The Parking System

The state-of-the-art, 86-space automated parking system is located in the basement of 500 Walnut. Westfalia worked closely with SDC and project architect Cecil Baker + Partners to ensure the parking system efficiently integrated with the building structure and maintained the ultra-luxury aesthetics where the residents interacted with the parking system in the two transfer areas on the first floor. Opened in early 2018, 500 Walnut uses a system that collects vehicles directly from the concrete floor of the two basement levels, allowing a high throughput.

Residents of 500 Walnut drive up to the building and a transponder in their vehicle sends a message to open the outer garage-style door, allowing them to enter the luxurious marble auto court area. Once in the auto court, the outer door closes and a transparent transfer area door opens in front of them, allowing them to park their vehicles in the correct position with guidance from an instruction screen. The residents then use a sleek touch screen immediately outside the transfer area to answer a set of standard questions and confirm they wish to park their vehicle in the system; the transfer area door then closes, and the automated system handles the rest. Residents have then completed the parking process in a private, hassle-free manner and then take the personal elevator to their condominium. No one has to get into the resident’s vehicle, meaning residents can safely leave their personal belongings in the car without fear of tampering.

Once the transfer area door has closed and locked, the system scans the transfer area to ensure there are no people present. The vehicle is then lowered to a basement level where the mechanism drives under the vehicle, clamps its wheels, and transports it onto the transfer car. The vehicle lift can then return to the ground floor to allow another vehicle to enter the transfer area while the previous vehicle is being parked.

To retrieve their vehicles, residents can either swipe their fob at the reader in the personal elevator or at one of the fob readers immediately outside the transfer areas (or they can call down to the concierge to retrieve their vehicle for them). Once their fob has been read, the system retrieves the vehicle from its parked location and moves it to the vehicle lift, which raises the resident’s vehicle to a transfer area on the ground floor. On one of the touch screens adjacent to the transfer areas, the residents are given an estimated wait time—which averages just over two minutes—for their vehicle to be returned to the transfer area. When the vehicle lift is at the ground floor, the door opens, allowing the resident to enter the vehicle and drive it forward out of the transfer area to exit the property on to Fifth Street. The transfer area door closes as soon as the sensors indicate the vehicle is no longer present.

The parking system at 500 Walnut is equipped with two levels of parking with two individual transfer cars that can move within an aisle to store and retrieve vehicles. The palletless system transports vehicles into the parking garage and positions them directly on a concrete or steel deck. Building construction can be based on concrete or steel or a combination of both, depending on project location and the client’s construction preference.

The Amenities

This system was customized for this specific development. Pictorial representations of the system and equipment pieces and simplified user screens were created to allow non-technical personnel to easily interact with the parking system. The concierges at 500 Walnut also have access via a terminal at their desk, allowing them to perform certain functions such as retrieving vehicles and permitting residents’ visitors to use the system.

500 Walnut’s facility offers:

■■ Cost- and time-efficient parking.

■■ Increased safety.

■■ Less human involvement and fewer human errors than traditional systems.

■■ Convenient 24/7 access.

Read the article here.

IAN TODD is director of automated parking systems at Westfalia Technologies. He can be reached at itodd@westfaliausa.com.

SERVING MULTIPLE MASTERS

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

TPP-2016-10-Serving Multiple Masters

 

BEAUTY AND A FUNCTIONAL BEAST

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

TPP-2016-10-Beauty and a Functional Beast

 

 

UNDER THE DUNES

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.”