Type: Mixed-Use
Project Name: Court Street Transportation Center
City: Iowa City
State: IA
Client: City of Iowa City

Features: Intermodal facility integrating a structured parking facility (a 2-bay wide, cast-in-place post-tensioned concrete parking structure containing approximately 500 cars on 4-levels). The bus terminal and daycare facility are housed integrally within the structure at ground level.

Description: The Near Southside Transportation Center Intermodal Facility integrates a Structured Parking Facility, Inter-City Bus Terminal and daycare within one structure. The parking facility accommodates park-and-ride and general parking users through hourly, daily and monthly revenues. The bus operation provides pick-up and drop off of inter-city public and Greyhound cross country private bus service in approximately 2,800 square feet. The daycare operation provides a facility for the care of children for the general public workforce in the downtown Iowa City area in approximately 8,000 square feet. Additionally, a covered bicycle parking is provided for daily parking of about 20 bikes.

The 2-bay wide structure contains approximately 500 cars on 4-levels of structured parking. The Bus Terminal and Daycare Facility are housed integrally within the structure at the ground level. The parking facility incorporates a single helix design with 90 degree parking and two-way traffic in the two bays. One bay, facing an alley, has sloped or ramped parking to provide vertical circulation of autos to the various levels of the structure. The other bay and two ends of the structure are level or flat with continuous parking and are used to circulate vehicles from one side of the ramp to the other. These flat horizontal areas were designed intentionally leaving three sides or elevations that provide optimal aesthetic facade treatment. At grade the arrangement of components allows integration of the site context, which slopes from end to end, without compromising functional aspects of the facility including the interaction between the auto and bike parking, daycare and bus terminal functions within the facility. Safety features include two glass-backed elevators, glazed stair towers, emergency phones on each level and open stair and elevator lobbies. Electrical, mechanical, plumbing, storage and equipment and elevator machine rooms along with the Bus terminal and daycare structures are located on the first level.

A precast skin applied to the cast-in-place post-tensioned concrete structure, utilizing a combination of “thin brick” and colored panels for the exterior façade was incorporated into the design of the parking facility. The precast façade spandrel panels are offset in plan to allow visual modulation in the elevation while providing sufficient passage of light into the facility. The bus terminal and daycare are nested primarily within the structure for cost efficiency but have partial elements projecting at the ground level to provide aesthetic indicators to the desire functions in the program as well as giving visual relief to the elevations and creating a more human scale at the pedestrian level. DESMAN Associates is the Structural Engineer of Record. OPN Architects, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa firm, is the Architect of Record. HLM Engineers, an Iowa City, Iowa firm, is serving as MEP Consulting Engineer.