“The focus was on funtionality, safety, compatibility with the existing Chesapeake Energy campus architecture, and reinvention of the typical parking garage image while making it fun for the daily users of this garage.“ (Elliott + Associates Architects)

The main company site of Chesapeake Energy Corporation is located at Oklahoma City in the US-State of Oklahoma. This company is recognized as one of the biggest onshore deliverer of oil and gas in the U.S.A. The architects Elliott + Associates Architects have been assigned to construct a car park at the main company site for more than 800 cars at four levels and a total surface of about 28,000 m².

The architects focused on functionality, safety and the integration into the existing architecture of the Chesapeake Energy Campus without duplicating it. The building should be made unrecognizable as a parking garage. At first glance it should appear as an office building. The cars inside should not be visible from the outside during day- or nighttime. The exterior should respond to the constantly changing light and colour of the Oklahoma sky. The exterior skin had to think “Brick Shadow” and soft sky reflections and the architectural mass “dissolve” into the sky.

To achieve a homogenous surface with only 25% open area, Haver & Boecker designed a new mesh specification using slightly crimped flat wires: LARGO PLENUS 2022 made from Stainless Steel T316 with a small open area but enough transparency in frontal. Small gaps between panels provide minimal interference for the integrity of the mesh façade. In full sunlight the mesh façade appears fully opaque and the building is not recognizable as a parking garage. To further accentuate the structure, aluminium tubes have been added to the south and east elevation, which create interesting reflections on the mesh itself.

Haver & Boecker provided 117 elements of woven wire cloth with a total surface of 3,200 m². The standard elements at all four façade sides measure 10 m x 3 m. They are tensioned over the whole length from top to bottom. There are nearly no gaps between them. Together with the architects and contractors Haver & Boecker developed a special invisible tensioning system, customized for this building, to further enhance the aesthetics.

Aside from the aluminium tubes the east façade is equipped with another architectural feature. In the centre 10 black mesh panels are set back facing inside the parking garage. Although the mesh façade disguises the building on the outside, from the inside it still provides a high degree of transparency when looking out. With its open area of only 25%, the mesh is still open enough to be able to recognize buildings, natural elements and people outside of the garage. At the same time it provides adequate airflow to allow for natural ventilation. Even though the Oklahoma weather can be hot and humid in the summer, LARGO PLENUS 2022 cools down the air significantly and provide comfortable shading inside the garage. There each level has its own colour to give orientation and to create an enjoyable, cheerful atmosphere.

In 2009 Elliott + Associates Architects wan with “Car Park One at Chesapeake” the “International Architecture Award” in Florence, the “International Architecture Award” of the “Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design” and the “European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies”. In 2010 followed the awards „Award of Excellence, Category I“ and „Award of Merit, Category V“ from the “International Parking Institute”.

Parking garages provide a perfunctory purpose in today’s corporate environment. The requirement is simple. We have people; we have cars; and we need to put them away temporarily. End of story? Not exactly.

We all use parking garages and agree that most experiences are less than great. For many they have been dismissed as only necessary in our work-a-day world.

Elliott + Associates has set about to reinvent the parking garage experience. Happily we had the perfect client in Chesapeake Energy and CEO Aubrey McClendon.

The reinvention begins with renaming the place “Carpark” and envisioning a place to store cars. The goal was simply to acknowledge the typical reaction to most parking garage experiences. Patrons generally describe them as dark, dirty, low, confusing and oil spotted. A place no one really wants to be.

With a focus on functionality, safety and compatibility with the campus, the new Chesapeake Car Park makes a positive statement about the corporation itself and the value they place on the quality of the campus environment. For Chesapeake every detail reflects the image of themselves and the projected image for guests.

The building covers a city block and stores 791 vehicles. With such a large scale the architects skinned the structure in 3/8” wide stainless steel mesh. The 25% open weave allows air movement as required by code and responds to the light in Oklahoma. With 300 sun-days per year the reflective quality of the mesh allows the surface to “dissolve” into the sky from reflections. The edges disappear and the surface provides a daily report on the ever-changing weather. At sunset the western elevation captures the magic moment when the yellow becomes orange and finally becomes purple just before black.

A unique feature of the exterior is the aluminum outriggers on the east and south elevations. These 4’ extensions create changing linear shadows that artistically hint of the contents. The linear shadow becomes the same line as the parking stripe hidden inside.

In an effort to “connect” the Car Park to the existing campus across the street we incorporated masonry. However, we needed a “transparent” wall to fulfill the 25% open code criteria. We chose a clay-fired 8” x 8” x 8” solar block in a matching color to the campus king size brick. The visual and material link is maintained between the modified Georgian campus architecture and the modern architecture across the street.

We have all been lost in an unfamiliar parking structure with a rental car that you cannot remember. Visual orientation and memorable visual queues are critical to navigation within parking structures. We purposely chose to place the elevator on the destination side – by the Chesapeake campus in this case – with a window so that a visitor could visually connect the garage and their destination. It also adds a bit of charm and fun to the experience. Stairs are also adjacent to the elevator if one prefers to walk.

Having said that, the stairs offer another opportunity to improve the experience while being useful as well. We elected to add the same colored fluorescent lighting in the stairwells to emphasize the color / level connection and a fun atmospheric journey.

In an effort to reinvent the parking garage we considered hiding the cars from view to passersby. We incorporated a 48” tall concrete bumper wall at the outer edge of each level to block the view of the vehicle from outside. Our belief is that we could change the preconceived image of a parking structure into a handsome, artistic architecture that becomes an asset and a recruiting tool for new employees. We are happy to report that we have succeeded.

Landscaping is an important aspect of any project and especially parking structures. The scale required that the building be softened and humanized as it integrates into the campus environment. Everyone walks from building to building so trees and seasonal color add to a positive experience.

Since this facility serves a corporate campus, visitors are here each day. We wanted to make the place an experience worth remembering. Greeted with “Welcome Back” or “Have a Great Day” the experience begins immediately. All interior surfaces are painted white and the clear height is 10’ – 6”. Color-coded levels are defined with bold graphics and colored fluorescent lighting visually reinforces the level you decide on.

Finally, the surprise is a full height 13’ wide lighted atrium that contributes to air circulation and contains a light sculpture using the four floor level colors. It is hard to forget the floor you parked on. What a great place to be.

Mission accomplished. Parking as art.