A New Twist on Parking Garages

by Marcy Marro | July 1, 2019 12:00 am

Intrigued with the idea of using metal fabric to create a unique aesthetic design, Sarasota’s Solstice Planning and Architecture[1] and Kimley-Horn[2]’s Plantation, Fla.-based parking practice turned to Cambridge, Md.-based Cambridge Architectural Mesh[3] to collaborate on ideas.

The team settled on a new concept that incorporated tensioned, spiral mesh panels to accent the structure’s façade. Cambridge mocked up and hung four full-sized panels, and city officials joined the design team at the company’s headquarters on Maryland’s Eastern Shore for a live demonstration.

With everyone onboard with the project, Cambridge initiated production. Sustainable metal fabric is a work of art that requires geometry, open area, dimension and flexibility.

Skilled artisans wove more than 9,000 square feet of stainless steel mesh to create 520 individual spiral panels. Most measured 1-foot wide by 20 feet high, while others varied in length. The work included more than 250,000 individual welds that Cambridge craftsmen completed by hand.

In addition, 22 mesh screens of varying size were created to use on less visible areas of the garage.

Due to Sarasota being in a hurricane zone, Cambridge engineers designing the mesh’s mounting base plates and brackets had to account for winds that were 50 percent higher than are common on most projects. This required customization throughout the fabrication process and close coordination with the structural engineering team to ensure that system components met building codes and could withstand the extra wind load transfer.

Sturdy custom outriggers were manufactured in Cambridge and welded to the base plates before they were shipped to Sarasota.

In the field, a channel was embedded into the façade concrete as it was poured. This provided a continuous mounting surface around the building. The base plates were then bolted into the embedded channels.

Next, the outriggers were bolted and tied to together with a continuous member. The mesh was attached at top and bottom to the member and sat one foot off the façade.

In Sarasota, L&S Erectors of Litchfield, Ohio, installed the mesh with Cambridge engineers and project managers providing oversight in the field. The twisting of each individual panel occurred during this process and was the genesis for “Volution,” the name Cambridge has given to its new proprietary mesh system.

As required on all parking garages in Sarasota, the mesh provides a visual screen for the adjacent St. Armands Key neighbors to break up the linear nature of the structure, along with dissipating light spillage, according to Kimley Horn parking practice manager Mark Santos.

The garage opened in February 2019 and Sarasota Parking Manager Mark Lyons reports, “residents are loving it” and “never thought it would look so good.”

Jonathan Parks, senior principal at Solstice, says the mesh spirals are “like jewelry and provide a softness to the project that was integral to the success of the design.”

The $12 million project provides public parking for the patrons of St. Armands Circle’s retailers and restaurants as well as patients and staff at Sarasota Memorial’s nearby urgent care center. The garage features a bike repair station, free air, five electric car-charging stations, public restrooms, a unique interior staircase and light well. Rooftop solar panels next to the garage generate power.

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David Zeitlin is the business director for Cambridge Architectural Mesh in Cambridge, Md., whose woven metal fabric appears on parking garages throughout North America from Yankee Stadium to multiple casinos in Las Vegas and Canada. For more information on parking projects and mesh systems, visit www.cambridgearchitectural.com[4].

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/a-new-twist-on-parking-garages/

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