Parking garage at Clemson University's auto research center

University Business, Dec, 2007

WHILE AVOIDING A CAMPUS EYESORE MAY BE A goal for institutional officials planning for a new parking garage, the enthusiasm for such a project doesn't often go beyond that. But it makes sense for an auto research center m have a particularly eye-catching garage. The Clemson University (S.C.) International Center for Automotive Research, which is nearing completion on a 250-acre hilltop site about 45 minutes from Clemson's main campus, has a parking structure designed to "celebrate the car."

* FUNCTION: Parking garage for approximately 1,200 traditional cars, with space for electric cars, motorcycles, and bicycles.

* CHALLENGES: The CU-ICAR project's vision--"to be the premier automotive and motorsports research and educational facility in the world"--is ambitious. So when the team began discussing the campus parking facility, it's no surprise they envisioned something special. "At least initially, it is the hub of our campus," says John Boyette, CU-ICAR's director of real estate. With the garage and attached administrative building opening around the same time (nearly a year before students and faculty would be on the campus), officials saw the garage as a first impression for visitors and potential new partners, Boyette adds. "Unlike [with] most parking structures, they wanted to be able to see the cars, especially from the plaza area," says Randall W. Carwile, director of operations for Walker Parking Consultants in Atlanta, of his client. There was also the Clemson commitment to green building--with a directive to make all new buildings qualify for LEED-Silver certification-to take into account.

* SOLUTION: For maximum visibility, Boyette says, the garage has "a glass curtain wall on the front that makes it look pretty spectacular." The view from inside the six-story structure is of a landscaped plaza and of the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center, which will bring students and faculty to the campus when it's completed next month. "We're building a campus where hopefully we can have automobiles and people coexist in the same area, as opposed to trying to separate everybody out," Boyette says. Besides parking spaces, the garage features a tire inflation station donated by Michelin.

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On the green building front, the garage being attached to the CU-ICAR offices building will help in qualifying for LEED-Silver. Green features include reserved spaces for carpools and alternative methods of personal transportation, Carwile says. Also, the structural steel and concrete reinforcing bars contain recycled content.

* Cost: $21.8 million for the garage and attached office tower

* Completed: Spring 2007

* Project Team: Neal Prince Partners (Greenville, S.C.), architect of record; SmithGroup (Washington, D.C.), design architect; Walker Parking Consultants (Atlanta), structural engineer of record--M.E.