The task: building one of the largest multi-story parking garages on the East coast. The goal: building it as safely as possible while still maintaining production. Utilizing OSHA's 29CFR 1926 construction standards and having all the needed safety resources, we tell the story of the people that made it all happen. (Photo 1.)
Photo 1: Cover Photo (available in full paper).
The Baltimore Washington airport parking garage (aka Monster Garage.Clark), was only one part of the allotted $1.8 billion dollar expansion project for the Baltimore Washington International Airport. Why $1.8 billion dollars do you ask? Flight departures and arrivals at Baltimore Washington International have reached all time highs of 299,300 per year, which break down to an average of approximately 20,000 commuters per day. Commuters and travelers not only mean a need for lots of airline and airport space, but also a need for personal vehicle parking. Daily parking on BWI maintained parking facilities equates to an average of 11,721 vehicles a day, which means that in order for the airport to stay abreast of the anticipated and already overflowing congestion, they (the Maryland Dept. of Transportation in conjunction with the Maryland Aviation Administration) would need to embark on an expansion project of not just the airport itself, but also including the building of a centrally located commuter/traveler parking garage. This parking garage would help alleviate the need and expense for several of the other longer distance parking facilities to remain open; and allow travelers the convenience and protection of an enclosed, close in proximity to the airport, parking garage. (Photo 2.)
Photo 2. BWI Airport's Futuristic Looking Parking Garage (available in full paper).
This mega garage would eventually provide parking for 8,400 cars, with an anticipated cost of $150 million dollars to build. The garage would be nine (9) stories high including 8 different stair towers, and two spiraling helixes for access to and from the garage itself. It would additionally incorporate 8 elevators at each of the stair towers, which were designed to transport parking customers to the second floor of the parking garage, where they would then pick up a shuttle bus which would take them to the main airport terminals. With 8,400 potential parking spots in the facility, something would need to be done to ease the confusion and inconvenience of driving around and around until you found a vacant parking spot. To combat this issue, a state of the art parking system would be installed. This system consists of red and green lights located at each parking spot which indicate whether or not a particular parking spot is occupied or not (red indicating it's unavailable and green indicating it's available); additionally a main "billboard," located at the beginning of each aisle, would be installed indicating the number of vacant spots in each aisle/row.