Innovative blending of two adjoining parking garages has resulted in a unified structure that has doubled the parking capacity of the site without using additional land. Hartford Hospital built the first structure, a five-story, post-tensioned, cast-in-place concrete garage in the 1960s. Unistress contracted to build the adjacent five-level precast structure for the Hospital in 1985.
In 1993, the Hospital came back to Unistress to construct an additional three levels of parking on top of each garage. In order to add three levels to each structure, and meet new seismic codes, an extensive interior and exterior shear wall system was created. A new matching precast facade was installed on the cast-in-place garage to harmonize the structures.
The highly visible street elevation features terraced floors allowing natural light penetration into the garage. Ramps to the new levels are framed by clear-spanning litewalls, which also permit light to filter down from the roof.
The limited access of the site allowed only two locations to set up a crane. With precise planning, the addition was erected using a special 400-ton ringer crane. Careful scheduling allowed on-going use of the existing garages and minimized disruption of the Hospital’s patients and staff.
Close teamwork between Unistress, the project's designer, and the contractor enabled a satisfying result: a handsome, architecturally subtle structure with clean lines and a feeling of permanence and solidity.
|
