Project Rewind: Innovation and Technology at South College Avenue Parking Garage

It was early summer of 2016, and Pinkard was on track to hit the contracted July 12 completion date on South College Avenue Parking Garage, a 222,000 square foot, 662-car, four-story precast structure on the southeast corner of the Colorado State University campus.

A design-build partnership between Pinkard Construction, H+L Architecture and Pittsburgh-based parking structure specialists Carl Walker Construction, the final design for the $15.2 M project featured numerous innovations, including state-of-the-art parking technologies, electric vehicle charging stations (a rarity in 2016), an advanced LED lighting system that improves pedestrian safety while reducing energy and maintenance costs, and a bioswale rain garden that filters out pollutants naturally and directs the clean storm water into the city system.

During preconstruction the team provided exceptional value enhancement solutions, such as adding a “Mondrian-patterned” precast element for design variety and cost savings over a stone clad wall and hydraulic elevators with glass doors and backs instead of the more costly four-sided glass traction-elevator cabs.

After breaking ground Pinkard had implemented creative field solutions and manpower adjustments to overcome numerous unforeseen conditions, including excessive groundwater and subgrade structural modifications.

Then, more than midway through the project, CSU handed the design-build team a new challenge: can we add rooftop solar panels? With the fall semester approaching, Pinkard sprang into action to price and procure the owner addition, which would require rooftop structural modifications to allow for the addition of a solar array. Thanks to the team’s swift action, the approved scope addition was able to begin construction in June and stretch into late August, just in time for classes to begin.

Ultimately, the South College Avenue Parking Garage was completed under budget and ahead of schedule. CSU points to this project and experience as a shining example of the design-build approach at its best, informing the university’s specific procurement of new projects going forward, and leading them to be less prescriptive, and to rely more on the expertise and innovation that design-build teams are capable of delivering when given the opportunity.