Parking Garage Space Sculpting System

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Austin Convention Center

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System: Parkade
Attachment Method: U-Frame
Metal Fabric Pattern: Plait

Project: Austin Convention Center Parking Garage & Cooling Plant
Location: Austin, TX
Architect: Barnes Gromatsky Kosarek Architects-Austin, TX
Facility Owner: City of Austin & Austin Energy
Facility End Use: Parking Garage & Cooling Plant
Completion Date: Garage: February 2005, Plant: Still Pending
Renovation or New Construction: New Construction

Project Details: Cambridge Architectural recently constructed a Parkade system that unifies a new parking garage and cooling plant at the Austin Convention Center in Texas.

The parking garage and Austin Energy District Cooling Plant now blend seamlessly with the existing convention center. Approximately 20,000 square feet of metal fabric in Cambridge’s Plait pattern, supported by U-Frame attachment hardware, wraps a corner and adorns expansive brick walls to create movement and to humanize the scale of the integrated structure, which occupies an entire city block.

In May 2002, a major facelift and expansion of the Austin Convention Center nearly doubled its exhibit and meeting space, but created a major inconvenience for drivers looking to park in busy downtown Austin. The solution was a five-story, 685-space city parking garage built in conjunction with a city-owned District Cooling Plant that would provide chilled water to downtown buildings.

The parking garage and cooling plant serve two entirely different purposes and are occupied by two different entities: the Austin Convention Center Department and Austin Energy, the city-owned utility. To unify the structures, the architects used the same brick, concrete and Parkade mesh system for both buildings.

The Cambridge Architectural metal fabric panels were curved and installed on structural tube, steel support framing to create sweeping vertical waves that sculpt an otherwise unadorned façade. At night, the structure glows a transparent blue green. During the day, the metal fabric allows sunlight to pass into the parking garage, and softly shades the sidewalks below.

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