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Parking space design and a great commercial parking area is the prime convenience advantage of the office complex over the central business district.

nationwide consulting explains comercial parking lot design

Landscaping, Walkways and Open Space in Commercial Parking Lot Design

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nationwide consulting explains comercial parking lot design

Commercial Parking Lot Design:

Walking to and from Offices

At Nationwide Consulting, LLC we understand the needs of the office complex developer, efficiency and cost effectiveness. One of the most important facilities of an office building is the parking facilities. Now we concentrate on commercial parking lot design and how to best serve both the developer and the eventual tenants and visitors of the facility, efficiently and cost effectively.

The ease in which the customers can find a parking space near the office they are looking for is very important, in order to make that office complex a favorite destination. It is equally important that the visitors be able to find their way back to their car easily, and exit the office complex without incident.

comercial parking lot design 7

Walking from the Space to the Offices:

 

Once the office worker or visitor has safely gotten his or her car into the best available space, he or she has only to walk to the office destination. We have been assuming that parking would be laid out around the outside of the office building, with the interior of the Commercial Parking Lot Design reserved for pedestrian movement.

Some parking lots have concrete sidewalks between the rows of parked cars. If they are installed, they should be at least 7 feet wide to allow for the overhang of the front ends of the cars, and to allow room for two people carrying files or equipment to pass each other without difficulty.

An office building, which is served by a multi-story self-parking structure, is able to boast that no tenant or visitor need walk more than 110 feet from his parked car without being under some cover. Covered walkways for office workers and visitors can be an important feature, especially where the parking is spread out considerably, and the weather often inclement.

commercial parking lot design

Multi-story parking garages, because of the relatively high cost per parking space, are not usually recommended by Commercial Parking Lot Design, except where the amount of land is limited and its cost per square foot is high.

For office complex purposes, it is almost necessary that the structure be a self-service parking garage, and this fact raises some problems of design in a multi-level garage, particularly in the size of the spaces and aisles on each floor, and the width and design of the ramps leading to the floors and elevators.

commercial parking lot design

Can you have too much parking?

 

We know of no existing office building that has too much parking. It is true some parking spaces are not economically used, due to their distant location from the offices. The poorly located spaces would be used more frequently if they were more conveniently located. The limit on parking area is for the most part determined by the distance that people have to walk to get from their cars to the offices.

In an office complex which offers only an uncomfortable walk through a sea of parked cars, the limit that people can reasonably be expected to walk is about 350 feet. On the other hand, if you can offer the tenant or visitor something other than cars to look at, he will most likely walk further. Arcades with meaningful statuary and interesting displays, or pleasantly landscaped areas to walk through might permit the extension of the parking area in commercial parking lot design.

commercial parking lot 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:

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

 

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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