from staff
Haskell recently announced it will start construction on a 402,000-square-foot parking garage for the University of Central Florida in Orlando in March. The pre-cast parking structure, for which Haskell also did the design/build services, will contain 1,326 parking spaces and has been designed to match the academic architectural style and brick facade of the surrounding campus buildings. Existing storm water retention is being incorporated under the facility. The total design/build estimated cost for the project is just under $14 million and the parking garage is expected to be complete in time for the Spring semester starting January 2011.
“The need for additional parking structures at the University of Central Florida resulted from the loss of parking lots on the inner core of our campus and the increase in student population,” said Kris Singh, director of University of Central Florida Parking and Transportation Services. “The idea behind this particular parking structure was to put it on the perimeter of campus to promote walking to popular areas.”
The new parking garage is located on Gemini Boulevard near Knights Plaza, which is home to the university’s sports complex and arena. The structure will support parking for athletic events and entertainment venues as well as parking for students traveling to and from class.
“Our parking structure expertise has allowed us to work with the university to help them save several millions of dollars by designing a very efficient parking structure with innovative storm and water management features,” said Paul Tyler, president of Haskell’s Commercial Group. “In addition, we were also able to effectively take advantage of the current favorable marketplace for pre-cast concrete solutions.”
Singh said that the options Haskell was able to provide during the process helped his department both in terms of budget and decision making.
“Throughout the design/build process Haskell gave us several alternatives to choose from, ranging from pre-cast to cast-in-place designs, and a variety of plans for maximizing parking capacities and mode of traffic inside the structure,” said Singh. “Working with Haskell has created a great experience overall.”
Construction on the new parking garage is expected to be complete in December 2010.