You are at that point. Your project needs a parking solution and conventional parking will not work for a variety of reasons. How can we make this project work?
Stepping into the world of mechanical parking systems can be daunting. The learning curve is steep, there are dozens of types of systems, and the differences between them is less than obvious. When you literally need to design your building around these machines, how do you know that you aren’t being led down the wrong path?
There is too much at stake so we have outlined six simple steps to help you with your decision process:
Choose the right partner
While counterintuitive when you are still trying to select a mechanical parking system type, how will you know you selected the right one when your contact can only provide one or two solutions?
Harding Steel has been in this business for over 50-years and has more systems at our disposal than anyone in the industry. This creates a serious advantage when you are making a decision with this much impact.
We take a different approach. We are here to help create mechanical parking solutions for challenged projects. Many companies are out there with only a handful of products, but not enough experience to truly guide the design team. This is what sets us apart.
Ask the right questions
As mentioned above, does the vendor have more than one way to solve your problem? Are they able to explain the tradeoffs between different approaches?
Are you working with a stable company that will be around for service and warranty after the project is complete?
What is their local and national install base like?
How do they handle service and warranty repairs? Do they have established local staff who can respond quickly?
Where do they manufacture and is there a political or tariff risk?
Do they have CAD and Revit files readily available? What about design and drafting support in house?
Do they have licensed structural and professional engineers for shop drawings and submittal documentation? What is their capacity and lead time?
Watch out for misleading data
Many vendors will place an extreme focus on retrieval time – how long it takes to access your vehicle once you push the button (min, max, average). However, retrieval time is actually one of the least important data points. What you really need to understand is throughput. In other words:
How long does it take to get the second car; and then the third?
How much time to completely empty or fill the systems?
How many parking-in and parking-out processes can the mechanical parking system handle per-hour?
These are the metrics that will make or break your automated or mechanical parking system—and will be the difference between happy and frustrated users.
The last, and most important data point is reliability. A troublesome mechanical car parking system can quickly become a burden. Reputation matters.
Understand your user and use-patterns
It is fairly obvious that different uses have different throughput needs. An office building will see nearly everyone arrive and leave in the same narrow time window. On the other hand, an apartment resident in a prime, walkable location may only drive on the weekends. This use-pattern needs to be taken into account when selecting a mechanical car parking solution, and when laying out the garage.
Less obvious, however, is how different systems that enable independent vs. dependent access. This is the difference between a traditional valet-style “stacker” system that requires physically moving the bottom car to access the top car and a truly independently accessible system where the parking system performs all of the movement automatically. This is a critical decision to be made early in the project. For example, hotels traditionally offer a valet service for check in and check out. These are easy projects for valet operated stackers. On the flip side, a tight urban infill apartment building cannot support the cost of a full-time valet, so the systems must be independent or automated parking systems.
Understanding your user and internal operations will help define the throughput requirements, and help you make better decisions.
Examine your physical constraints
Once you understand your user and throughput needs, you need to consider where the system will go and how it will be accessed:
Do you have more than one option for a curb-cut or is it locked?
Can we create adequate queue or “dwell” space”?
Does the project have good traffic circulation?
Does the garage entrance face a major street, alley, or side street?
Would there be a more-optimal place for your elevator core if you weren’t designing around parking?
Is there a hillside that makes ramping convenient, or an absolute nightmare?
Are there water tables, contaminated soil, or bedrock to consider?
What else is competing for the same space? Can we create more space for amenities, bike racks, a trash room, mail room, transformers, etc.?
Explore the big-picture budget
One of the first questions that comes to mind is always cost. This is usually defined as price-per-space, but the this only takes into account the actual machinery and ignores opportunities that may be unlocked in the rest of the building.
Is there value in creating more amenity or leasable area?
Would reshaping or shifting your elevator core lead to a more efficient use of upper floors?
Can fitting more parking enable more units or allow you to fully capture your FAR?
Can you eliminate excavation and/or slabs that not only cost money, but slow down construction?
How can you use mechanical parking to reduce risk or plan for the future?
Following these six steps will help flatten the learning curve and enable you to avoid several common pitfalls that waste time and money – and cause embarrassment. When you are ready to consider a mechanical parking system, Harding Steel is available to help think through your specific project needs and constraints.
About Harding Steel Inc.
Harding Steel is the oldest and most reputable mechanical and automated parking lift company in the United States. Harding has been at the forefront of the industry for over 50 years. Harding is headquartered in Denver, CO with offices in Washington DC, New York, Boston, San Francisco, and the Pacific Northwest.