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Parking Space Design

Parking Space Design for Commercial Parking Lots

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Parking Space Design

Office Building Parking Lot Design;  Parking Space Design

 

At Nationwide consulting, LLC we understand the needs of the office building developer, efficiency and cost effectiveness. One of the most important facilities of an office building is the parking facilities. This 4 part series concentrates on office complex parking lot design and how to best serve both the developer and the eventual tenants and visitors of the office building, efficiently and cost effectively.

Parking Space Design

Office building Parking Lot Design; Parking Space Design, Efficient Use of Space Available:

Parking space design and a great commercial parking area is the prime convenience advantage of the office complex over the central business district. In spite of the repetitive statement of this fact, the office worker and visitors to the office building may not always find the parking space he or she wants.

The tenant and visitor alike want a space he can find easily, with a minimum of difficulty in moving around the parking area, and one that is located near the office door or the elevator which will get them to their office.

The fault is sometimes with the developers who have underestimated the need for parking space or found the land too valuable to be devoted to parking. Sometimes there are too few parking spaces simply because there are too many people with cars looking for them.

Parking in the office complex is seen by the office worker and visitor as a series of steps:

  1. Maneuvering the car around the lot until he or she finds a space;
  2. Getting the car into the space;
  3. Walking from the space to the office.

Leaving the complex, the office worker or visitor must go through approximately the same steps in reverse, including finding his or her car which occasionally seems more difficult than it was to find the space originally.

Parking Space Design

Finding the space:

Whether the office worker or visitor finds a space at all depends on the amount of parking space originally provided. The key factors in moving cars around the parking lot are the lay-out and width of the aisles between the rows of parked cars, especially near the most attractive points of entrance to the office building, the elevators and popular offices.

How wide the aisles should be depends mostly on whether the aisles will be one-way or two-way. If the visitors park their own cars, as happens at nearly all office buildings, then the aisles should not be so narrow as to make the task difficult, nor so narrow that one car being parked will temporarily tie up traffic in the aisle. For one way aisles, width should be at least 10 feet; for two way aisles, about 20 feet.

Parking Space Design

Getting the car into the space:

Basically, we are assuming that most office building parking lot design site plans are laid out pretty much in the same way. For instance, the spaces and the aisles may be laid out this way:

The narrower aisles (a) are the pedestrian walkways sometimes provided, and the wider aisle (b) between rows of spaces is the aisle for maneuvering the cars. The lay-out may be varied for several types of angle parking, thus:

Parking Space Design

The total parking lot area per car space (including aisles) affects the office worker and visitors in terms of his or her difficulty or lack of difficulty in getting into a parking space. Not more than 200 square feet need be devoted to the space itself. Most regulations require a space 9 by 18 feet, and one 10 by 20 feet should be ample in any situation.

The rest of the area (150 square feet per car) will be used up in aisles, exits and entrances, and landscaping. No land will be saved by making spaces less than 9 feet wide. Since cars are about 7 feet wide, a smaller space will encourage straddling the dividing lines, and the result will be even fewer usable spaces than if they were 9- or 10-feet wide.

Parking Space Design

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.

Residential and Commercial Design

Call Nationwide Consulting, LLC today for a free consultation and you hit the expert button:

 

Value Engineering

Call Nationwide Consulting, LLC today for a free consultation and you hit the expert button:

Estimating Servaces Explained

 

Nationwide Consulting, LLC

Robert E. Hanson

Principal Partner

410.336.4961

 

nationwide logo

 

Entrance and Exit Road Design

Office Building Parking Lot Design; Office Complex Entrance and Exit Road Design

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Entrance and Exit Road Design

Office Building Parking Lot Design; Part 2, Entrance and Exit Road Design

At Nationwide Consulting, LLC we understand the needs of the office building complex developer, efficiency and cost effectiveness. One of the most important facilities of a office complex is the parking facilities. This 4 part series concentrates on office building parking lot enterance and exit road design and how to best serve both the developer and the eventual tenants and visitors of the office complex, efficiently and cost effectively.

Entrance and Exit Road Design

Office Building Parking Lot Design; Office Complex Entrance and Exit Road Design

Crowded highway intersections have long been considered good commercial locations, but the problem of entrance and exit road design to the office development is receiving much fuller consideration in modern office complex planning. The key to the access problem is not the volume of traffic passing the office building, but the density.

As traffic surveys have often shown, the total number of cars passing a given point on a road (the volume) eventually drops as the density gets close to the saturation point. The reason for this relationship is simple. The closer the cars are packed together, the slower they must go. The roads having highest volumes are those on which the cars are spaced further apart and travel at higher speeds with relative safety.

Both the high-density and high-volume roads offer problems of access to the office complex. On the high-density, fairly slow-moving road, it will be difficult for drivers to maneuver into position to turn off. On high speed roads, ample warning must be given the driver that he is approaching an exit, and the exits into the office building must be designed with safety features that take the higher speeds into office complex parking area.

Entrance and Exit Road Design

Few office buildings will be served by high-speed, limited-access roads. Office complexes being constructed in developing areas will be served by an existing road network which may not be adequate to handle the traffic that will arise when the office complex is completed and the area is built-up.

The points of access from the roads to the office building should be adequate to accommodate traffic at the busiest hours of the complex, work start and work finish. The peak load of an office building can be estimated on the basis of the general work day start and work day end.

The problem is three-fold: first, to determine the largest single-day gross use of complex; second, (on the basis of the average persons per car) to determine how many cars will be in and out of the office complex on that day; and third, to estimate the number of cars that will enter and leave the complex during the busiest hours of that day, and use this information for entrance and exit road design.

Entrance and Exit Road Design

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:

Entrance and Exit Road DesignEntrance and Exit Road Design

Value Engineering

Call Nationwide Consulting, LLC today for a free consultation and you hit the expert button:

Estimating Servaces Explained

 

Nationwide Consulting, LLC

Robert E. Hanson

Principal Partner

410.336.4961

 

nationwide logo

 

nationwide consulting explains owners representative

Owner’s Representative or Project Manager; What’s the Difference?

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Owner's Representative or Project Manager; whats the differenceOwner's Representative or Project Manager; whats the differenceWhy Hire a Owner’s Representative or Project Manager; is there a Difference?

By: Robert Hanson, Nationwide Consulting, LLC

 

What is the difference between a firm calling itself an Owner’s Representative and those calling themselves, Project Managers?  In the case of Nationwide Consulting, LLC, both terms Owner’s Representative and Project Manager are used.

Owner's Representative or Project Manager; whats the difference

 

 

There are so many passionate points of views, interpretations and disagreements on such vague titles from card-carrying “Owner’s Representatives”.  So what is the difference? Well, it depends who you ask, who you represent and how the client and project team perceives your role.

We at Nationwide Consulting, LLC use the term Owner’s Representative and Project Manager interchangeably in presentations, discussions, contracts and articles. The Owner’s Representative  or Project Manager is typically a 3rd Owner's Representative or Project Manager; whats the differenceparty (individual or company) that is hired by the Owner or Tenant to represent them during site selection, design and construction phases.  Another use of Owners Representative or Project manager might be in a relocation project, to handle all aspects of a complicated move.

When the Tenant (as opposed to Owner) hires the Owner’s Representative or Project Manager, the role is often referred to as a Tenant Representative or Project Manager however they perform similar oversight tasks on behalf of the tenant during a landlord fit-out.  This should not be confused with crucial Tenant Rep

Brokers (but often is) who advocate and exclusively represent tenants in lease transactions.

The Owner’s Representative is working for the owner’s or tenant’s best interests and are at the heart of every decision made in a project. Owners/Tenants with limited knowledge of design, construction, phasing and relocation hire an Owner’s Representative to represent their interests and be the liaison between the broker, design team, landlords, contractors, and client vendors back to the owner.

 

Owner's Representative or Project Manager; what's the difference
Overwhelming responsibility and time commitment required
to manage multiple consultants.
owner’s representative streamlines communication

Owner Representatives are usually charged to monitor (not manage):

  1. The design development process to ensure project scope is achieved;

  2. The overall project budget (including FFE and other non design/construction related costs);

  3. The bidding process;

  4. Assist with jurisdictional reviews and project related mitigation issues;

  5. Construction related activities, including pay applications;

  6. Project close-out and occupancy;

  7. Move management and relocation.  These are the main functions typically performed as an Owner’s Representative. There are certainly others; and depending on the size, complexity and experience of the owner, the role may vary.

 

Overwhelming responsibility and time commitment required

A Project Manager title can also be used to describe not only an Owner’s Representative but also a General Contractor’s Construction Project Manager who is employed by the GC to direct the trades and oversee the project from the contractor’s perspective. Yes, a separate Project Manager may also be part of the General Contractor’s team too.

Some view the project manager as directing the project through the design phase working along with the architect and engineer, while the Owner’s Representative works as a liaison between the project manager and contractors.Owners representative or project manager, what's the difference

For complex projects with procured services and different Project Managers for different phases, the Owner’s Representative is a Project Manager that aligns the team of Project Managers with the owner’s interests in the project.  This has the effect of neutralizing conflicts of interest within the project team.

Nationwide Consulting, LLC is considered to be a project manager that manages the entire project depending on what phase we are brought into the project. We are contracted by the Owner or Tenant to represent them and manage/coordinate all aspects of the project.  We set requirements for time and money and coordinate all of the teams by being active at their individual management level to assist them in resolving problems. At times we have found that having control of the “purse” strings is very motivating in getting a message across, truly acting as the Owner’s Representative can speed the process and brake log jams in a complicated project.

No matter what you call the position, if you are contracted directly to the Owner (or Tenant) you are the Owner’s Representative, but you are managing the project.

So to answer the question, the term Owner’s Representative and Project Manager can be and is in many cases used Owners representative or project manager, what's the differenceinterchangeably.

At Nationwide Consulting, LLC we stand ready to manage your project efficiently and work to the advantage of the owners.  Whether you call us Owners Representative or Project Manager, we are on your side.  We will assure you are in controle of your project, that prices are kept in line, work is efficient and your interests are of number one concern.

Owners Representative or Project Manager, you need call only one number to find out all you need to know about what Nationwide Consulting, LLC can do for you right now:

 

Call Robert Hanson are Nationwide Consulting, LLC for a no obligation assesmet of your project right now:  410.336.4961

Owners representative or project manager, what's the difference