Parking in the Shade
by Jonathan McGaha | March 31, 2016 12:00 am
Sunshades highlight parking garage with a view
Overlooking the New York City skyline just across the Hudson River in an area alive with expansion, the Port Imperial South Parking Garage is a seven-story precast garage structure in Weehawken, N.J. Amidst the growth of the Port Imperial area, focused design teams have ensured the South Parking Garage is more than just another gem added to “the other side of the river.”
Early Project Challenges: Tight Deadlines and Budgets
The conceptual design for the exterior envelope included three different types of screening/sunshade components along with aluminum composite material (ACM) cladding and glazing elements. Early in 2015, the project team approached DAMS Inc.-D. Architectural Metal Solutions Inc., Alsip, Ill., to assist in the design and development of the exterior wall concept drawings.
Fast tracked with budget and a short time frame, the initial exterior wall concept sketches illustrated the design intent of utilizing perforated aluminum panels and vertical aluminum fins with a horizontal aluminum cap on the face of slab to complete the building’s façade. The challenge was to take the design concept and develop it into a cost-effective solution that could be fabricated and installed within the desired time frame and within budget.
The Approach: Unitized and Ready to Install
There were a few ways to create a project like this and stay within budget for the materials alone. However, DAMS worked in concert with the design and installation teams in an overall project partner approach to create a unitized, easy-to-install exterior cladding solution that fulfilled the design intent and aesthetic appeal-saving cost and time in the design/fabrication as well as in the installation. The resulting strategy was to create a factory-fabricated, high-performance coated, ready-to-install unitized system. The system eliminated field fabrication and let the installation contractor focus on installation instead of assembly.
Additional Challenges: Attachments and Flexibility
As the project progressed, some new challenges arose:
- The attachments and systems needed to accommodate the amount of movement a parking garage requires.
- Flexibility of attachments in areas where precast spandrel panels slope due to the ramping of the garage.
- How to attach the upper roof level systems when no spandrels were present.
Solutions
In working through the attachment challenges with the team, the solution became clear-an engineered system to accommodate unique conditions by developing a universal project attachment system for which all of the different façade components could be attached. A custom, continuous 12-inch-high horizontal aluminum channel at each floor level with top and bottom custom-attachment brackets receive all the different façade components.
The attachment system was engineered to accommodate for thermal expansion and the movement requirements of the garage. Finished in a high-performance Kynar finish, the attachment channel system was shipped to the job site in 20-foot lengths and included all of the custom bracket attachments to receive the three different types of sunshades in multiple sizes.
The different exterior design elements consist of three general types of features:
- Perforated sunshades: Consists of a different width and size of aluminum perforated sheet assemblies with tube-welded frames, stagger-type perforated aluminum sheets with custom perimeter reveal.
- Vertical airfoil fins: Consists of aluminum vertical 12-inch airfoil fins. Different spacing with machined aluminum end caps attached to floor level framing with custom aluminum clip system.
- Z-blade sunshades: Consists of horizontal, custom Z-blade screen wall units that utilize aluminum flat bar vertical outriggers, aluminum Z-blade infills and aluminum T-bracket attachments.
DAMS provided the project design team with a single-source, engineered, fabricated, finished, cost-effective solution that fulfilled the design intent and yielded a beautiful parking garage façade.
Port Imperial South Parking Garage, Weehawken, N.J.
Completed: November 2015
Architect: Desman Associates, Chicago
Contractor: Belle Associates LLC, Fairfield, N.J.
Installer: FM Home Improvement, Denville, N.J.
Metal fabricator: DAMS Inc.-D. Architectural Metal Solutions Inc., Alsip, Ill., www.damsinc.com
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Shawn Bowman, CSI, is the national director of sales and marketing at Alsip, Ill.-based DAMS Inc.-D. Architectural Metal Solutions Inc. For more information, visit www.damsinc.com.
Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/parking-in-the-shade/