Broward Community College A. Hugh Adams Central Campus Parking Garage
Davie, Florida
Completion Date: 2009
Construction Cost: $18.5 M
Serving as Design Criteria Architects, PGAL prepared the site plan, schematic and design development drawings as well as technical specifications and performance data for this 1,300 car parking garage. Drawings will be used as a basis for a Design-Build competitive selection process. The 10 acre site, located on the west side of the central campus along College Avenue, will serve as a signature entry into the campus. It also provides ample land area for future campus growth, provides easy access for Broward Community College commuter students, and allows the College to successfully resolve existing drainage issues.
The four level parking structure features a compatible palette of materials including red patterned brick, white precast banding and trim with punched openings for emphasis over the arched portico entry points. Punched openings are also repeated on a 185-foot screen wall. The screen wall is elevated above the ground plane and skewed 20 degrees from the parking deck to maximize fresh air quality and to creatively mask standard functions of the garage ramping system.
Easy access is provided from 30th Street with secondary access provided from the internal campus loop. The design also entails reconfiguration and revitalization of the existing entrance roadway, perimeter and interior loop road. Surface parking, retention areas (innovatively located under the new garage), drainage, landscape and hardscape elements, irrigation, and sidewalks are also being improved as part of the garage program.
Design innovations for the 383,000 SF garage include: vertical circulation that slopes floor-to-floor ramps allowing a vehicle to ascend/descend two levels in a complete 360-degree revolution; two-way traffic flow created with two separate internal circulation patterns; ninety-degree striping with universal stalls allows for maximum parking utilization; a long span structural system, which places the support columns at the front of the parking spaces, allows for an efficient parking plan and construction cost efficiencies; color coded graphic wayfinding is provided floor to floor and at major access/exit points; heightened security is provided via glass-backed elevators, open stair towers and through active and passive system designs.