Project Details
- Project Name
- Warehouse Complex
- Architect
- Chandler and Associates
- Project Types
- Office
- Project Scope
- New Construction
- Size
- 48,000 sq. feet
- Shared by
- Miabelle Salzano
- Team
-
Jason R. Chandler, A.I.A
Hermann Gonzalez
- Consultants
-
DDA Engineers,Franyie Engineers,Zamora & Associates
- Project Status
- Built
- Cost
- $4,080,000
Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECT:
This project for two new warehouse structures is composed of 43,000 square feet of dock-height warehouse space and 5,000 square feet of office space. The site has been designed to accommodate the requirements of the loading and unloading of tractor-trailer trucks in the most efficient manner. As a result, the two structures are located parallel to one another and share a common access road. The site has been graded to integrate accessible pedestrian access to eliminate the need for elevators.
The one-square mile unit of the city that forms the context for this project is zoned IU-3, Industrial Unlimited Manufacturing. The zoning for this area is conducive for warehouses: minimal setbacks are required, only 15% of the site needs to be open and green and building heights are limited to the width of the street. As a result, this one square mile urban landscape was designed with a single focus: to accommodate warehouses and their associated vehicles. To accommodate this use, blocks are roughly 600 feet wide and 1,200 feet long and are spilt down the center to form 300 feet deep lots that are typically 200 feet wide. Older sites conform to this lot site and contain 300-foot-long warehouses. Some newer blocks were planned as single lots with warehouses that are 600 feet long. Street right-of-ways are 70 feet wide and include room for two travel lanes flanked by landscape strips that contain utilities.
This distinct section of the urban fabric plays a vital role in the very day workings of the city. It is where goods are manufactured, stored, processed, and shipped. As an industrial urban element embedded within the grid, it operates outside the conscience of the city: there are no civic structures, public spaces or significant institutions. The architecture of this area is remarkably consistent. Virtually all the buildings are warehouses of one or two stories. These warehouses are constructed of reinforced concrete block walls with precast twin tee roofs. Most are long column free boxes fifty feet in width. This fifty-foot dimension is tied to an easily attainable precast twin tee span and the allowable exiting distances of a single story non-sprinklered storage structure. Outside the warehouse much of the site is paved to incorporate large turning radii and back up areas for tractor trailers.
Warehouse Complex is a pair of new structures that expand the warehouse typology by seamlessly integrating accessible access to dock height warehouse space. The structures are built of reinforced concrete block masonry with a precast twin tee roof. Each structure is divided into three bays. Each bay is composed of an office at grade, which is connected by an interior ramp to dock-height warehouse space. Above the office is an open warehouse mezzanine.
This project reflects the design intention to refine a simple utilitarian building. Solving the complexities of the building program within a restricted site creates the opportunities for formal expression. In this project, a long span box satisfies the need for flexible warehouse space while compact office volumes occupy the left over space of truck turning radii. The resulting massing creates a complex building profile that is enhanced with minimal window and door openings, overhangs and varying parapet heights. The challenge of this project was to provide accessible pedestrian access to elevated dock-height warehouse space. Rather than use a motorized lift or a stand-alone ramp, the site was sloped to the office and warehouse entrances.