Office Building Parking Lot Design: Access
How do You Plan for Access to Office Building Parking Lots in the Design Process
At Nationwide Consulting LLC, we understand the needs of the office building developer, efficiency and cost effectiveness. One of the most important facilities of office buildings are the parking facilities. This 4 part series concentrates on Office building parking lot design and how to best serve both the developer and the eventual tenants and visitors of the office building and its facilities, efficiently and cost effectively.
The site planner and the site developer are most concerned with four stages in office building parking lot design. The office workers trip from home to the facility, the visitors ability to find parking spaces and the visitors ability to find the offices. The 4 areas we will discuss over the next 4 articles include:
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The road the tenants and visitors travel to get to the office building.
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The point at which the office workers and visitors leave this road and enters the shopping center.
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The search for unoccupied parking spaces for both tenets and visitors.
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The walk from the parking space to the office they are seeking.
Office building developers must consider many facts which are not strictly within city planning jurisdiction, such as the trade potential of the area surrounding the office building, and the types of offices that should be located in a particular office building complex.
As final plans for the office building begin to emerge, showing the size and layout of the building, parking area, and service areas, the needs of the tenants begin to be addressed. The planner should become vitally concerned with office building parking lot design, and the unique ways different problems can be addressed for different properties.
Office Building Parking Lot Design;
The shopper’s trip to the parking lot:
Thirty minutes driving time is currently the accepted limit of the market area of a major regional office complex, which might serve up to 500,000 people. The area enclosed within the thirty-minute driving time has to be calculated according to the condition and congestion of the streets. The Office building is not always in direct ratio to linear distance. Five miles of expressway may be traversed more quickly than five blocks of a crowded business section.
Office building developers recommend traffic counts of the major streets serving the complex. This is not so much an indication of the business potentiality, but as a check on the congestion already existing. It also serves as an aid in predicting the traffic situation after the complex is opened.
As a matter of self-preservation, developers and architects recommend further studies, including the future road-construction programs in the area. It is also advisable to research future housing developments and population movements in the area, so that other effects on business and traffic may be determined.
Once the gross annual volume of business of the office complex has been estimated, the average number of cars using the complex daily may be estimated. Also the peak traffic, in and out, may be estimated, and the time of day at which peak loads will occur may be determined.
To the normal present and future traffic loads of the roads serving the office complex, must be added the traffic generated by the offices in the building itself. The totals must be compared with the capacity of the roads. If the roads do not have the extra capacity to handle the future traffic loads, new road construction should be in the offing, or the office building should be located elsewhere. If possible, the site selected for a new office building complex should be adequately serviced by existing public roads.
Nationwide Consulting, LLC has handled over 400 million dollars worth of office building and manufacturing facilities development projects all over the world. Unique challenges can come up in the office complex parking lot design process, and Nationwide is uniquely qualified to handle any challenge.
Whether it is land clearance, demolition of existing structures, parking lot coverings, curbs, access roads, infrastructure, or the building itself, Nationwide Consulting, LLC is the go to firm for results. Put your projects site development supervision needs in our hands and be assured the job will be done, efficiently and in a cost effective manner.
Call Nationwide Consulting, LLC today for a free consultation and you hit the expert button:
Nationwide Consulting, LLC
Robert E. Hanson
Principal Partner
410.336.4961
