Reinventing Parking Solutions

by Marcy Marro | January 2, 2019 12:00 am

An innovative example of this ever-changing neighborhood is 12 E. 13th St. Transformed with an extraordinary architectural vision, it is uniquely suited for contemporary loft-like residences. Expansive floor plans provide grandly proportioned but flexible living spaces, while four bays of oversized windows across the unrivaled 67-foot-wide street front provide a striking source of natural light.

Completely updated with a new structural envelope and state-of-the-art mechanical systems, the building has been re-clad in a burnished orange-red Roman brick. At the top, a crown of curved luminous glass rises from behind the cubic form of the original structure, turning the building into a work of art.

Inspired by New York’s first apartment buildings with one residence per floor, the design evokes spacious loft-style interiors that flow with light and air. Astonishing great rooms extend across the entire front of the building. The design expresses the building’s industrial heritage, redefined through contemporary sensibility and materials, with extravagantly large rooms, divided by a series of sliding, full-height glass doors.

What About Parking?

While Greenwich Village is a neighborhood of discovery, you’re not very likely to discover a parking spot anytime soon. Like much of Manhattan, this neighborhood has competitive street parking, near-constant construction, tight garages and every square foot of available space becomes more valuable by the minute.

Not only would future residents of 12 E. 13th St. demand perfection from an interior design and construction perspective, they would need a safe, secure and easy-to-access space to park their luxury cars and SUVs. A limited floorplan left no space for a ramp to the second-floor parking deck, the designers incorporated a state-of-the-art robotic parking system to automatically park and retrieve residents’ cars.

When a resident arrives home, they use their smartphone to open the garage door. Once inside the parking bay on the first floor they simply exit the vehicle and it is swiftly sent upstairs to the second floor parking deck with the touch of a button. Since each residence has its own parking space and the door is a heavily used access point, it was important for the designer to find a fast, reliable and secure rolling door with a compact overhead unit.

“Not only was functionality a major concern, but we also needed a custom closure solution that worked with the overall exterior aesthetic of the building which is rooted in neighborhood context,” says Eugene Flotteron, AIA, principal, CetraRuddy Architecture[1], New York CIty. “We collaborated with [Mountain Top, Pa.-based] CornellCookson[2] to develop a solution is both functional and architecturally sensitive.”

Problem Solved

Overhead space wasn’t a major concern as the first-floor parking bay lacked a ceiling, which allows the automated parking system to lift the cars to the second story. This allowed the architect and CornellCookson to develop an ingenious alternative.

Instead of the standard metal rolling doors or grilles that grace the first floor of buildings throughout Manhattan, they designed a custom panel that attaches to the bottom of a roll-up service door that is anchored on the second floor. The panel matches the architecture and design of the other exterior doors and windows on the first floor for a seamless aesthetic. When closed, it looks just like the rest of the façade.

When the rolling door on the second floor is raised, it coils into the hood. This pulls the panel attached to its bottom bar up to the second floor, providing access to the parking bay. The door hangs there until it is lowered back down. Since the panel doesn’t need to coil, it can remain one, rigid piece of material. When closed, the panel is invisible to passersby, only known as the entrance to the parking bay by residents and owners. This adds a sense of privacy and security—along with exclusivity.

While invisible on the outside of the building due its location on the interior wall of the second-floor parking garage, the CornellCookson Rolling Service Door plays an integral role in the function of the parking bay. Manufactured from slats of formed galvanized steel, it is made to last for more than 50,000 roll-up cycles. Its commercial-grade construction requires minimal maintenance for the lifetime of the door, ensuring residents are never left stranded.

In addition, a safety light curtain adds another level of protection, ensuring that the motorized door and panel will not close on an object. If an object enters path of closure, this entrapment protection device will stop the door or grille from closing and return it to the fully open position.

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Shawn McCormick is a key member of the Mountain Top, Pa.-based CornellCookson Architectural Design Support team, where he works with the architecture and design community to provide custom door and closure solutions. For more information, visit www.cornellcookson.com[3].

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/reinventing-parking-solutions/

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