San Diego International Airport Parking Facility Among Winners of 2019 International Parking Awards of Excellence Design Competition

June 10, 2019

With creative design and meticulous planning, it appears almost anything is possible in parking and mobility today, as the seven recipients of the International Parking & Mobility Institute’s (IPMI) 2019 Awards of Excellence demonstrate.

“This year’s diverse winners apply art, function and ingenuity to daunting and complex projects,” says IPMI CEO Shawn Conrad, CAE. “Whether they serve an airport, university, city transit hub, or a 19th century neighborhood, they share many common characteristics: they harmonize with their surroundings, pay tribute to the past, address a variety of needs, and plan intelligently for the future. We are proud to honor them as winners of IPMI’s 2019 Awards of Excellence.”

Winners, presented at the 2019 IPMI Conference & Expo, June 9-12 in Anaheim, Calif., include: 

Best Design of a Parking Facility -- Combination of technology, form and function that soars

San Diego International Airport Terminal 2 Parking Plaza

  • Owning Agency: San Diego County Regional Airport Authority
  • Parking Consultant, Architect, and Engineer of Record: Watry Design, Inc.
  • General Contractor: Swinertonr
  • Design Builder: Gensler
  • Civil Engineer: Michael Baker International
  • Landscape Architect:
  • Cost: $97.8 million

With inadequate parking to meet growing demand and only a 661-acre footprint, the in-city San Diego International Airport needed a facility that supplied function as well as form. The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority envisioned a new “front door” for Terminal 2 that would combine design and cutting-edge technology, promote visitor engagement, and supply more than 2,900 new spaces.

An upper-level overlook provides harbor and downtown views, preserved by limiting the building’s height and expanding its footprint. Three expansive lightwells flood the garage with natural light and provide an open, airy pedestrian path to the terminal. Filigreed metal trees create elegant archways over the lightwells, and rock gardens and benches offer respite for tired travelers. To conceal conduits in the facility, the design-build team collaborated with electrical subcontractors during the early stages to identify routing and design solutions using columns, beams, and concrete decks.

Exiting passengers are greeted by three massive, brightly colored public art installations on the Parking Plaza’s exterior stair towers, each featuring stainless-steel aircraft cables strung with hundreds of resin airplanes. The various aircraft styles celebrate San Diego’s commitment to the aviation industry; a model of the Spirit of St. Louis reflects the airport’s origins as Charles Lindbergh Field. Unique colors for each installation assist wayfinding, and a license-plate recognition system, flexible payment options, advance reservation system, and modern parking guidance system further streamline the experience.

Best Design of a Mixed or Multi-Use Parking & Transportation Facility

Miami Design District Museum Garage

  • Owning Agency: Miami Design District Associates
  • Parking Consultant, Architect, and Engineer of Record: Timothy Haahs & Associates, Inc.
  • General Contractor: KVC Constructors, Inc.
  • Facade Curator and Designer – Barricade: K/R
  • Facade Designer - Urban Jam: Manuel Clavel Arquitectos
  • Facade Designer - Ant Farm: WORK Architecture Company
  • Cost: $51 million

With its unique, brightly colored facade, the Miami Design District Museum Garage is a visual showpiece that features the designs of five different artists. Architect and curator Terence Riley of K/R drew inspiration from the French surrealist parlor game “Exquisite Corpse,” in which a single image is created by various artists with no knowledge of what the others have drawn, its diverse components melding into a single, playful composition. Five artists and firms were charged with the challenging task of turning their individual conceptual designs into a realistic, life-size artwork, overseen by architect TimHaahs. The facility’s roof deck also was transformed with the mesmerizing graphic of a hurricane, inspired by Doppler radar imagery.

In keeping with its show-stopping exterior, the mixed-use facility is designed for maximum efficiency and mobility, with 22,000 square feet of high-end retail space on the ground floor, a below-grade valet area with car-lifts, six supported levels of self-parking, and bike racks. Its 736 public spaces include 30 electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations and 191 valet spots.

Innovation in a Mobility, Transportation, or Parking Operation or Program

Dogpatch Neighborhood Parking Plan

  • Owning Agency: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Calif.
  • Owner and Planner: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Parking & Curb Management

The unique, artsy San Francisco neighborhood known as Dogpatch combines industrial and residential units with brewpubs and chic restaurants. Two dozen multi-family, mixed-use developments had recently tripled Dogpatch’s population, and its 2,600 unregulated spaces were mostly occupied by long-term car storage, commuter parking, and recreational vehicles, leaving few spaces for residents and local business customers. The anticipated construction of more than 6,000 residential units in the half-square-mile neighborhood, a new, 18,000-seat arena for the Golden State Warriors NBA basketball team, and an expanded Mission Bay research campus for the University Plaza of the University of California, San Francisco, left Dogpatch in dire need of a parking and mobility solution. 

The SFMTA’s Parking and Curb Management team decided to collaborate with several neighborhood organizations and city agencies, including bike and pedestrian planners, landscape architects, the public works and city planning departments, and the Green Benefit District. The group spent more than two years developing a unique and innovative parking management strategy that would balance the competing demands of multiple stakeholders and incorporate emerging mobility needs. Its priorities included improved pedestrian access and safety, expansion of the bike route system and bike-sharing infrastructure, and accommodations for increased bus service and car-share vehicles.

The Dogpatch Neighborhood Parking Plan took a creative approach to parking demand management at the neighborhood level. Changing the parking alignment on selected blocks enabled the creation of pedestrian ways, improving access and safety and discouraging long-term storage of vehicles, including RVs. The plan created a mix of residential permit parking, time-limited parking, and demand-responsive metered parking, as well as sidewalk bulb-outs, bike lanes, bus stops, car-share parking, and bike-share stations. It discouraged commuter parking, leaving spaces for residents and local workers and reducing congestion.

Best Parking/Transportation Facility Rehabilitation or Restoration

Sioux Area Metro Transit Station Improvements

  • Owning Agency: City of Sioux Falls, S.D.
  • Owner Representative and Facility Project Management: City of Sioux Falls, S.D.
  • Project Manager and Engineer: Walker Consultants
  • Project Manager: GA Johnson Construction, Inc.
  • Architect: Michael Huber Architects
  • Cost: $1.9 Million

The Sioux City, S.D. Metro Downtown Transit Station, known as The Depot, is a central bus transit hub serving several downtown bus routes. After years of weathering and exposure, it needed significant repairs and required upgrades in lighting, signage, and accessibility upgrades to meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards and passenger needs.

After a 2011 condition assessment by Walker Consultants, the city decided to renovate the entire structure and site, working within a tight construction timeframe and a small urban area. It was quickly determined that the facility had to close during construction, so a temporary bus stop was created about one block away. This further reduced construction time constraints but allowed for continuous construction sequencing and saved the city money. The project included a complete renovation of the south entry and facade, two large, new skylights at the canopy, an upgrade to LED lighting, modernized signage, and an overhang around the building structure. Accessible curb cuts and pedestrian ramps were installed at all pedestrian crossings.

Award for New Sustainable Parking and Transportation Facilities Excellence California State University Sacramento Parking Structure 5

  • Owning Agency: California State University Sacramento 
  • General Contractor, Precast Concrete Producer and Engineer: Clark Pacific
  • Architect: Dreyfuss+Blackford Architecture
  • Engineer: Buehler & Buehler Structural Engineers, Inc.
  • Structural Traffic Planner: Fehr & Peers
  • Cost: $36.2 Million

As California State University’s largest and fastest growing campus, CSU Sacramento is focused on sustainability – and that was one of the chief goals for its new Parking Structure 5 (PS5). Built on an existing surface lot near the main entrance, the 1,750-stall, six-level structure was designed to harmonize with the dense trees of a nearby arboretum.

The “Big Build” was one of five major campus projects, requiring offsite construction to minimize disruption and worker commuting. Its structural concrete elements were prefabricated and assembled at a local, solar-powered manufacturing plant. By convening the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers and other design-build subcontractors early in the project, actual construction took less than 11 months, exceeding projected goals. With its innovative technology, design, placemaking, and conservation programs, PS5 is on target to achieve a Parksmart Gold certification from the Green Building Certification Institute and become the highest-performing, most-sustainable parking structure west of the Mississippi.

Award for New Sustainable Parking and Transportation Facilities Excellence

Stadium Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, Gold 1 Garage

  • Owning Agency: Stadium Authority of the City of Pittsburgh
  • Owner: Stadium Authority of the City of Pittsburgh
  • Architect: WTW Architects
  • Parking Design Consultant: Walker Consultants
  • Construction Manager: Massaro Corporation
  • Structural Engineer: A & A Consultants, Inc.
  • Engineer: Advantus Engineers
  • Traffic/Site/Civil/Landscape Consultant:  The Gateway Engineers, Inc.
  • Cost: $22.1 Million

The Stadium Authority of the City of Pittsburgh boasts the world’s first Parksmart Gold-certified parking structure, designed to showcase the city’s sustainability goals. Located in a fast-growing North Shore hub of retail, entertainment, and office buildings, the 330,000-square-foot garage also serves PNC Park and Heinz Field. It was designed as an ecosystem that supports daily commuter and event parking, as well as adjacent development and the extended community. Visually striking as well as sustainable, the six-story, precast concrete structure façade features a sculptural array of aluminum fins that shimmer in the sun, reflecting the nearby, glimmering Allegheny River.

Methods and materials for the 1,000-car Gold 1 Garage incorporated a durable design and other Parksmart strategies. More than 85 percent of the material excavated from the former surface lot was recycled, and many construction components were sourced and/or manufactured regionally. Construction workers lived within 75 miles of the site, parked in specific locations outside the city, and shuttled to the site to reduce their carbon footprint.

Gold 1 features ample electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations, motion-activated LED lighting, a tire inflation station, bio-swales to reduce rainwater runoff, secure indoor bicycle parking and service area for 100 bikes, and provisions for a future solar photo-voltaic (PV) array. The LED lifespan drastically reduces fixture maintenance, and daylight and occupancy sensors power down all unnecessary fixtures, further prolonging LED life. A small HVAC system is limited to staffed areas, and the facade’s openness invites natural ventilation, eliminating high-maintenance and energy-consuming ventilation equipment. The team achieved Parksmart’s requirement that the owner, architect, and builder work together from the onset to create a design that supports the structure’s ongoing sustainable management.

Architectural Achievement

Albert Cuyp Parking Garage

  • Owning Agency: Municipality of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Owner: Municipality of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Architect: ZJA Zwarts & Jansma Architects
  • Cost: $42.9 Million

The Albert Cuyp Parking Garage in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, proves that it’s possible to accomplish the most daunting of missions: build the city’s first large, technologically advanced parking facility in marshy soil beneath the Boerenwetering Canal, located in a densely populated 19th century neighborhood. Zwarts & Jansma Architects (ZJA) designed the 600-space underground parking facility to blend with the existing urban landscape, have minimal impact on the immediate environment, and incur no damage to the foundations of the 19th century houses. To conform with the canal’s oblong shape, the garage occupies an area of 260 x 30 meters, featuring two one-way lanes on both sides and housing parking spaces slanted at less-than-70-degree angles. It incorporates a parking system that records where each car is parked. Installations were concealed and ramps were integrated into the canal-side roads without any conspicuous elevations. Glass entrance walls allow light and air to enter and provide easy orientation for visitors, including daily parkers, permit holders, and bicyclists. Emergency exits and vents are minimalist. The 600 street spaces that were eliminated by the Albert Cuyp Parking Garage now are home to playgrounds, green areas, and squares. 

Best Design of a Mixed or Multi-Use Parking & Transportation Facility

Miami Design District Museum Garage

  • Owning Agency: Miami Design District Associates
  • Parking Consultant, Architect, and Engineer of Record: Timothy Haahs & Associates, Inc.
  • General Contractor: KVC Constructors, Inc.
  • Facade Curator and Designer – Barricade: K/R
  • Facade Designer - Urban Jam: Manuel Clavel Arquitectos
  • Facade Designer - Ant Farm: WORK Architecture Company
  • Cost: $51 million