The complete article by Saeed Bonyadi, Senior Project Manager in Walter P Moore’s Los Angeles Parking Group, Armen Megerdoomian, Managing Director of Parking Services in Walter P Moore’s Los Angeles office, and Eric Pagan, AIA, Project Manager in Walter P Moore’s Los Angeles Parking Group originally appeared in the July 2023 issue of Parking & Mobility magazine.
Overview
Paseo del Parque features two innovative parking structures. The development includes a four-story above-ground parking facility and a single-level below-grade parking area. The unique design of the underground structure, with its long-span construction and optimized traffic flow, enhances the customer parking experience. The project showcases a forward-thinking design with features like a parking guidance system, separate pedestrian paths, and provisions for electric vehicle charging stations.
Completed in 2022, Paseo del Parque in Tijuana, Mexico, is an upscale multi-stage mixed-use development that will serve the region for many years.
The development includes two parking facilities—a 129,339-square-foot, four-story parking structure with 405 spaces at the west end of the site and a 268,608-square-foot, single-level, below-grade parking area located under the main shopping plaza with 673 spaces. The two garages are connected and operate concurrently via two access points at the north and south entrances.
The long-span subterranean structure required a unique design strategy because it provided the owner with an economical and essential parking solution.
The below-grade parking structure and the site access design for vehicles to the parking area were completed before the owner moved forward with the design and construction of the other structures on the mixed-use development. Because Walter P Moore designed the parking and site access first, it provided an optimal solution to enhance the customer’s parking experience.
The traffic pattern for vehicles once onsite led them directly to the below-grade parking garage. This was critical because the footprint of the development is oblong and curved, and access is limited due to a surrounding freeway. The distance between the freeway onramp and an intersection into the development required the access points to the garage to be moved to the center of the development.
Properly managing the traffic flow into and out of the below-grade garage challenged the design team because peak entry and exit times for retail parking garages tend to overlap. To avoid long queues of vehicles competing for spaces, Walter P Moore developed a vehicular pattern to naturally distribute incoming traffic throughout the garage’s interior. A parking guidance system that uses cameras—which also enhance security—helps guide vehicles throughout the garage.
The structural design of the below-grade structure includes 18 by 60-foot bays as opposed to 30 by 30-foot bays used for a conventional garage layout. Because it is a long-span structure, which is uncommon for an underground parking garage, it can efficiently support the retail plaza while providing column-free parking.
Additionally, two dual-lane pickup and drop-off areas were included in the below-grade parking area to accommodate patrons using ride-share options. The dual-lane drop-off areas surrounding each parking entrance can receive autonomous vehicles, shuttles, scooters as well as ride-share vehicles.
Pedestrian safety in the garage was also critical—separate paths for pedestrian and vehicular traffic within the parking garage are divided into multiple zones. Each pedestrian path includes a naturally well-lit stairwell to provide access to the plaza.
Finally, the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) continues to grow slowly in Mexico. Therefore, the local code does not require EV charging stations. However, the owner asked Walter P Moore to incorporate the infrastructure for several EV spaces based on California code, each of which can be brought online rather seamlessly.
Firm: Walter P Moore
Location: Tijuana, Mexico
Owner: SCA Inmobiliaria
Project Team Members:
- Walter P Moore, Parking Design & Consulting
- JAN Construction, General Contractor
- Alcreq Group, Structural Engineer
- Cafunsa, Steel Contractor
