Healthcare

Lahey Clinic

Burlington, Massachusetts

1,165 space 4-level precast concrete parking structure

The Lahey Clinic Visitor Parking Garage was designed as the centerpiece of a new site masterplan that reorganized campus circulation to improve wayfinding and traffic flow, and to provide direct, covered passage for patients from parking to building.  The parking structure connects to the existing Main Entry and the new East Lobby with bright, undulating copper canopies that extend from the two glazed elevator towers that serve the Garage.   A new campus loop road diverts traffic away from the Main Entry to allow visitors heading directly to parking to avoid congestion that develops there.  The Garage is built into the hill to create entries on two levels to maximize flexibility; valet and handicapped parking is served on grade, and general parking on the upper levels.   Precast with brick insets was chosen to provide continuity with the materials of the main facility and new additions that were completed at the same time as the Garage.  The precast spandrels were heavily sandblasted to approximate the look of the original exposed aggregate precast, and the thin brick tile was carefully selected and placed in a random pattern to approximate the brick of the existing facility.  The elevator / stair towers were glazed for patient safety and to serve as clear wayfinding elements for the reorganized campus.  The elevator cores that sit within the towers were wrapped in a conventional brick that had to match both the inset brick spandrels and the original hospital building.  Decorative light fixtures atop the precast columns help define the structure at night.