Project Overview
This structure serves as a parking garage and rental car facility for Halifax International Airport. Precast concrete was chosen as the building material because of reducing cost, large clear spans, superb quality control, and speed of construction. Double-tees allowed the designers to achieve clear spans that provided openness, clear visibility, and intuitive vehicle movements within the garage.
Precast Solution
Perhaps the most intriguing part of this facility is the “basket weave” pattern of faceted precast concrete. The basket weave provides for a unique design feature to the garage that would traditionally have been a solid or plane wall. As part of the basket weave, punched windows were inserted to provide natural light into what is a structural shear element.
Another innovative aspect of the project is the use of cable guard rails, which were threaded through the precast columns on the exterior of the garage. The precision of precast allowed for inserts and guideways to be created in the plant with absolute accuracy. Another innovation was the use of local blue stone aggregate that is exposed through a variety of methods in the precast elements. |