FEATURE CAR PARK CONSTRUCTION
BUILDING
While the experience of parking facilities for customers has been transformed over recent years, the construction process has also seen changing technology and practices bring new issues to new builds, says Phil Lattimore
future W
for the
e’d all like to believe that the brand spanking new car parking facilities now gracing
retail developments, leisure centres, hospitals and many other public locations in the UK will stand the test of time better than the grim 1960s utilitarian municipal multi-storeys they’ve superseded. Increasingly, particularly in urban centres, we’re seeing modern, up-to-date public car parking facilities that deliver a safe and secure consumer experience that is streets ahead of what was the norm even a decade or so ago.
Public expectations of what a new car park is – and should be – have shifted upwards
Since that time, when local authority facilities were essentially revenue raisers, with little capital investment going into them, the door has been opened to private commercial operators. Now, public expectations of what a new car park is – and should be – have shifted upwards, too. The major investment in recent years in commercial developments that were previously municipally-run environments – from retail centres to leisure complexes – has brought with it higher quality of design and fi nishing. And where there is a commercial developer looking for differentiation, the quality and standards of car parking facilities servicing these developments improves, too. ‘Consumer-driven expectations have
20 NOVEMBER 2012
driven the quality up and the fact that the provider has shifted from local authority utilitarian to the commercial retail world is the other key driver in new builds being better than they were 20 years ago,’ says Kelvin Reynolds, director of policy and public affairs at the BPA. ‘The public perception of what a car park should be has changed. The quality of the product has changed. For the customer, it has to be an attractive place in its own right.’
Rising high
Despite these rising standards and increasing customer expectations, the fundamentals of public car park design haven’t evolved hugely over the last 20 years. The same basics apply: for example, a multi-storey car park is still a multiple-level structure, trying to get the most effi cient use out of the footprint of the site. The physical structure is
www.britishparking.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52