Structured parking fits all building types

Car parking has become a significant revenue stream for airports. In 2023, parking accounted for nearly one-quarter of the $54 billion in non-aeronautical revenue generated by airports worldwide, according to Airports Council International’s latest Airport Economics Report.

Aviation is also one of several building sectors where demand for new or improved parking structures has been on the upswing, especially in high-growth states and for multifamily, healthcare, higher education, and municipal projects, according to 10 AEC Giants firms interviewed for this article. Jason Rupp, a partner at the architectural firm AO, points to U.S. transportation studies forecasting a 19% to 29% increase in parking demand by 2045.

“Parking garages serve all building sectors. As such, the sectors that are in demand at any given time will also require structured parking,” observes Bill Kavanaugh, AIA, NCARB, Senior Parking Consultant for the design engineering firm IMEG, which currently is designing garages for gaming, healthcare, and local government clients.

Rapid growth at Clemson University in South Carolina was the impetus behind the recent construction start of that school’s first on-campus parking deck, a six-story structure that will hold up to 1,200 vehicles. “We reached a tipping point,” says Stephanie Cooper, AIA, AUA, Clemson’s Executive Director of Planning, Design and Construction. The Building Team on this project, which Is expected to take 24 months to complete, includes Walker Consultants, SKA Consulting Engineers (SE), Triangle Construction (GC), RMF Engineering (MEP), Land Planning (CE), and the landscape architect Bolton & Menk.

The city of San Luis Obispo, Calif., is building its fourth parking deck, a five-level structure with 397 spaces, which should be completed early next year. Donna King, the city’s parking services manager, says this project is a response to an expanding downtown that includes the development of a Cultural Arts District. She adds that the $44.6 million parking structure would help replace some of the street parking that’s been lost to mass transit. The structure’s Building Team includes Watry Design (designer and SE), Kitchell (CM), RPM Engineering (CE), and Earth Systems (testing, ecology).

The only area where demand for parking structures has softened is central business districts in cities that have reduced or eliminated their minimum requirements for parking spaces, or where alternate modes of transportation—such as ridesharing, bicycles, or light rail—are prevalent, according to AEC Giants such as Stantec and Choate Parking Consultants.

“Commercial [structures] that once required four or five spaces per 1,000 sf are now seeing demand below two space per 1,000 sf and continuing to drop,” say Ralph DeNisco and Jason Schreiber, Senior Principals with Stantec’s Urban Mobility Group.

No longer just a concrete bunker

Demand notwithstanding, parking structure developers are striving to meet to users’ higher expectations about aesthetics and technology. “Urban areas often require the parking structure’s façade to match the aesthetics and standards of surrounding buildings, ensuring a clean and seamless look,” says Josh Barrett, Project Manager for Nabholz Construction.

Clemson didn’t want its parking deck to look like a parking deck, says Ronna Emerling, AIA, Associate Principal with Jenkins Peer Architects, this project’s design architect. Her firm made its design “light and airy,” with an on-grade pedestrian bridge, façade that blends in with other nearby buildings on campus, and varying site grading.

A recently completed 328,000-sf parking garage for Sam Houston State University in Conroe, Texas, includes backlit vertical-colored fabric panels depicting abstract DNA sequencing, which provide ventilation for the 983 parking spaces and support the theme of the existing campus.

The newest parking garage at Kansas City International Airport is a seven-story structure with spaces for 6,219 vehicles. Parking Today magazine reports that the deck’s ventilated façade encompasses 50,000 sf of tempered and laminated glass from the supplier Bendheim Glass, each panel measuring 6 by 14 feet and weighing more than 800 lbs. The panels are attached to the deck’s concrete structure by a vertical compression clip system.

In Stanton, Calif., the apartment building Cloud House, which opened last March, is anchored by a six-story, above-grade, Type 1B parking structure with 547 stalls. AO’s Parking Studio designed the structure for Bonanni Development to include at its top level a 17,500-sf rooftop sky deck for Cloud House’s residents.

Adding such amenities often requires life-safety and fire-protection installations beyond what would be needed if the structure were solely a garage, notes Nick Ozog, Associate Principal with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates. His firm is also getting requests for art installations and green or living walls for parking structure exteriors that might have specific ventilation needs.

Prefab opportunities

The AEC firms interviewed mostly concur that prefabrication methods have been gaining traction in parking structure development. For example, the GC Swinerton, in collaboration with Walker Consultants, offers Perq, a predesigned and customizable parking solution that leverages a largely pre-engineered system to reduce a project’s timeline by as much as 10 months.

Precasting has become common for structured parking, and even projects that call for cast-in-place construction can rely on modular formwork that is prefabricated offsite. “Parking structures provide numerous opportunities for prefabricated elements, from panelized façade systems to complete elevator shafts,” says Spencer Yoder, Senior Preconstruction Manager for McCarthy Building Companies.

Cast-in-place isn’t going away, though. AO’s Rupp notes that his firm has paired cast-in-place structured parking with prefabricated multifamily housing modules, as a way of reducing the project’s labor needs and cost. For the five-story, 5,230-stall parking structure at San Diego International Airport Terminal 1, which wrapped up construction in June, Swinerton self-performed the concrete scope that entailed placing 88,000 cubic yards of concrete, which required 9,000 ready-mix trucks.

Clemson’s 100% cast-in-place parking structure is located near the university’s football stadium, and to accommodate tailgating the structure’s occupancy load, which is normally around 40 pounds per square foot (PSF) for decks, has been increased to 100 PSF, says John Gambrell, Clemson’s Senior Project Manager-University facilities.

Electrification now, and in the future

Ozog of Wiss, Janney finds parking garages “fascinating” because their operational and design trends are driven by building code changes that reflect shifting societal views.

One such trend has been the inclusion of electric vehicle chargers within parking structures. Rick Choate, DBIA, NCARB, PCL, Principal with Choate Parking Consultants, notes that California—which has more EVs on the road than any other state—has extensive EV infrastructure requirements; for example, 40% of parking spaces for new multifamily housing and hotels must be capable of supporting low-power Level 2 EV chargers, he says.

Some jurisdictions now call for 50% to 100% of new parking spaces to be EV charger capable, ready, or fully equipped, say Swinerton’s Jeff Goodermore, VP and Division Manager-National Parking Structures; Chris Spencer, Director of Parking Structures; and Alex Cody, Project Executive.

The new parking structure under construction in San Luis Obispo will have 41 EV chargers and is wired to add up to 135 more if needed, says Madeline Kacsinta, the city’s capital improvement manager.

EV chargers have sizable power needs, and inviting more battery powered vehicles into parking structures raises the risk of fire hazard. That’s one reason why Clemson is placing its 12 EV chargers at the periphery of its parking structure.

Chargers are part of a larger trend toward technology that makes the parking experience easier for patrons. Advanced wayfinding is one such improvement. Clemson’s deck will be incorporated into a new parking system through which app users can locate where campus parking is available.

The new parking deck at Sam Houston State—designed by Kirsey Architecture and built by Hoar Construction— includes 1,185 40- and 70-watt low-glare luminaires, supplied by the manufacturer Kenall, that enhance drivers’ visual acuity without compromising light levels.

Electronic license plate recognition is already a reality in a growing number of parking structures. In the future, the engineering firm Kimley Horn’s Vice President and Parking Consultant Adam Cochran, and Lead Design Engineer Blake Hodge foresee the integration of storage spaces for autonomous vehicles, and the expansion of frictionless parking that relies on AI and cameras to credentialed cars rather than using gates for entrances and exits.