The River Street Garage has already won many awards including the top PCI Design Prize in their 2002 awards for best parking garage. 

Design Goals:

• Create an 850-car parking structure to help the city maintain its strong downtown revival, including the addition of a million square feet of new state government office space.
• Design a structure that contributes to the district's rich urban character, a mix of 19th-century row buildings and taller 20th-century structures.
• Minimize the structure's presence in the middle of its block, where it will be surrounded by commercial buildings.

The nine-level, 285,000-square-foot parking facility features 10- by 30-foot precast concrete elements incorporating slender precast concrete columns and spandrel beams. The structural design eliminated the tall spandrels traditionally associated with parking structures. The panels' slender columns correspond individually to the 15-foot-wide by 57-foot-long structural double tee stems.

Precast concrete provided quality control, speed of construction, low maintenance and a high level of design and aesthetics. Completed precast pieces were delivered to the site ready for installation, which required approximately half the time needed for a comparable cast-in-place structure. Precast achieved maximum transparency and reduced mass. Columns were lightly sandblasted to expose the darker aggregate, causing the columns to visually recede for a more delicate effect.

PROJECT SPECS
Nine-level, 285,000-square-foot precast concrete parking garage with 850 spaces. Precast components comprised 52 architectural panels, 18 rectangular beams, four columns with no haunches, 30 spandrels, 113 solid slabs, 30 stair units with landings, 152 wall panels (10 by 30 feet), 181 exterior architectural wall elements (10 by 30 feet), 68 interior wall elements, 291 15-foot-wide double tees (57 feet long) and 39 inverted tee girders.

The Judges Said...
"This project was a unanimous choice of the jury due to its innovative use of big, horizontal precast pieces. It creates a nice balance between heavy elements and light elements while providing an open design. The architects devised a unique design that worked very well for this situation."

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