Proj Overview

Project Overview

To preserve valuable landscape at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, designers located the all–precast concrete parking structure and intermodal facility just outside the facility’s walls, extending its presence into the community. To visually connect the garden and this exterior structure, the designers combined geometric precast concrete shapes with channel glass featuring a metal-trellis infill to create a vertical garden on all four sides.

A series of monumental forked elements, symbolic of a branch, envelops the building, forming an overall enclosure and vertical trellised landscape. Interstices between the forked elements are covered with wire trellis planted with a variety of flowering vines. These design elements are accented by ribbed precast concrete panels that form the base of the building, adding visual interest.

Precast Solution

The structure features 1159 precast concrete components, including double tees, columns, spandrels, lite walls, shear walls, stair walls, beams, cladding panels, stair units, and planter curbs. Due to the unusual shape of the site, which features only one 90-degree corner along the perimeter, standard forms could be used only in a few locations.

Many of the precast concrete pieces had to be modified at their ends to adjust to the irregular geometries and to produce an efficient layout that accommodated 825 parking spaces. A light well was provided at the center, bringing daylight into the center of the building.

To handle the three-dimensional forked components, the precaster designed hinged steel forms that allowed adjustments to be made to provide the appropriate mirrored shape for each leg. In addition, when the original wooden form used to cast the ribbed walls proved inefficient, a recycled plastic/wood composite material was used.

 

Awards_
2012 PCI Design AwardsBuilding Award: Best Parking Structure (0-999 Cars)
Project Team

Architect

Ennead Architects, New York, N.Y.

Architect of Record and Engineer

Desman Associates, New York, NY

Construction Manager

E.W. Howell, New York, NY

Owner

The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY

Precaster

Unistress Corp, Pittsfield, MA

Precast Specialty Engineer

Stango Consulting Engineers Chestertown, MD

Key Project Attributes

  • Resilient precast allowed for a strong structural statement that will improve over time.
  • The versatility of precast allowed for unique molds to meet design requirements
  • Geometric precast concrete shapes were able to combine with channel glass featuring a metal-trellis to create a vertical garden.

Project/Precast Scope

  • Project size: 300,000 ft2 (28,000 m2)
  • Project cost: $35 million
  • 825 parking spaces