Better, Safer & More Beautiful Glass Parking Structures? Yes, Clearly!

Aug. 15, 2016
Open ventilated glass façades enhance visibility and natural surveillance and have outstanding performance characteristics that create endless possibilities.

Parking structures are a necessity of our hectic commuter lifestyle, providing us expanded transportation options and convenience. In urban areas and around mass transit hubs, they are proliferating, chasing our insatiable demand for more and better facilities. Yet, parking architecture doesn’t always receive the consideration and appreciation it deserves.

Thoughtful and creative design that addresses the existing site conditions and targets user experience can elevate parking structures — otherwise seen as mundane and repetitive — to an elegant and unique building form.

Facades, the most expressive component of an above-ground parking facility, are key to shaping its identity, marketability and long-term profitability. An elegant exterior, employing a statement façade material such as architectural glass, can turn a parking garage into a celebrated addition to the neighborhood. It can blend the structure into its surroundings or make a flattering design statement that inspires civic pride.

Selecting glass as a key facade design choice for parking decks, walkways, stairways, and elevator towers provides an array of exclusive qualities and benefits unachievable through other materials: from the most thorough protection against wind-driven rain, to the most striking and daylight-friendly aesthetic options.

Glass is a proven, sought-after material for traditional building types, and is now poised to make a home in contemporary parking design. The arrival of new ventilated glass cladding systems — a perfect fit for non-conditioned, above-ground parking facilities — provides the architect with new creative opportunities to enhance the aesthetic and functional value of the building. A ventilated glass skin can articulate a basic parking form in visually dynamic configurations and shapes, introduce passive ventilation and enhance occupant safety.

The Nutwood Parking Building at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) uses a 30-foot-high ventilated glass facade as an innovative design solution to seamlessly integrate the structure into the larger campus master plan. The design team, a collaboration between AC Martin as the Design Architect and Choate Parking Consultants (CPC) as the Architect of Record, was tasked with creating an aesthetically pleasing, design-forward building that would complement the adjacent Performing Arts Center. The glass selected for the new parking façade, a key element in the campus palette, brought the new and existing buildings together in a cohesive architectural language.

Enhanced parking facility aesthetics can have far-reaching benefits for parking owners and operators, as well as patrons. According to Cierra McManus of CPC, a California State University alumna, “There were a number of different parking options on the campus and I used the Nutwood Structure nearly every day — not because it was the one closest to my classes or easiest to find a spot in — I chose it because I thought it was beautiful. I remember how the reflection of the glass would capture the sky and project it like a painting during the day, and when lit up at night, it felt much safer and more welcoming than your usual parking structure.”

Patron safety and well-being are top-of-mind concerns for the parking professional, and enhancing visibility within and around the structure is key. According to a U.S. Department of Justice study: “enclosed spaces that experience little activity provide natural hiding places and are prime locations for assaults … Building codes currently require a minimum amount of openness on the exterior facade of parking facilities ... When possible, however, the openness of the facade should be maximized for crime prevention … The design shall endeavor to permit any individual in the stair or elevator lobby to be seen from the outside.”

Open ventilated glass façades enhance visibility and natural surveillance to discourage nefarious activities. They create outstanding visual and audio openness, keeping users alert to their surroundings and eliminating potential hiding places. Clear and translucent glass varieties, assisted by the open-joint system design, maintain continuous sight lines and create more open and inviting designs. The resulting facades grant outstanding visibility in and out of the structure, while providing protection from the elements combined with passive air circulation.

Glass is naturally translucent, reflective, and a great diffuser of light. It is the preferred medium to achieve maximum visibility in key access areas, such as stairwells and elevator towers. Whether plain clear glass, or glass with a decorative pattern, etched finish, or color, the translucent essence of the material acts as a window to the outside. In the pictured design concept, louvered fritted fade-pattern glass panels along the main parking deck facade faintly reveal the shapes and movements of people and vehicles. The clear glass cladding on the stairwells allows for high visibility during the day and night, improving patron comfort and safety.

Glass has an astonishing ability to change the personality of the building throughout the day and into the night. In sunlight, it reflects the ever changing natural landscape, neighboring structures, and traffic. At night, it comes alive in the glow of interior and exterior lights. The right lighting design elements, combined with different glass types and finishes, can be used strategically to enhance or minimize the building mass, or allow it to be experienced in unique ways during different times of the day.

At California State University’s Nutwood Parking, the translucent glass façade serves an almost theatrical role at night. The frosted glass gently projects the shadows of passing pedestrians, illuminated by the headlights of oncoming cars. The images are diffused onto the façade, creating a dramatic cinema-silhouette effect, playfully reminiscent of the neighboring Performing Arts Center.

Open, ventilated glass facade systems have clear and direct advantages for non-conditioned transportation buildings beyond parking structures. Their unique blend of benefits—from weather protection and sun shading to enhanced visibility and occupant safety — are a winning recipe for any transit building. The Train Station in Orleans, France features an open-joint glass façade comprising shingled clear glass panels that wash the interiors with natural light. The cladding is an excellent design choice, maintaining a sense of openness, while complementing its surroundings and projecting a stylish presence. The open-joint configuration allows for maximum passive ventilation and optimal protection from the elements. It offers occupants shelter from rain, snow, sleet and wind in colder months; ample air circulation and shading in warmer months.

Glass is a robust building material, yet it has a certain aesthetic delicacy and allure that adds a sense of refinement to the design. These qualities can transform an otherwise ordinary building into a Class A structure. The outstanding performance characteristics and aesthetic versatility of open, ventilated glass facades create possibilities for creative transport architecture that are only limited by one’s imagination.