Parking September 2010 - 52

McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas Courtesy of McCarthy Construction.

reduce overall building temperatures and energy consumption, can help purify greywater and can even be attached to air returns to help with air filtration.
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Photovoltaic solar panels rooftop or on sides of buildings can provide much if not all the structure’s energy needs. They can also be positioned as canopies to achieve more comfortable “covered” rooftop parking. This is being done at the six-level, $150 million, 5,200-space garage that is part of the new International Terminal project being designed at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Plans call for placing approximately 7,000 solar panels on the garage rooftop parking canopies. The system is being designed around the 235 Watt Sharp panel, a mono crystalline silicate type panel. The panels produce 1.7 megawatts DC/1.4 megawatts AC power which equates to approximately 2.6 million KW hours of power per year. Further, the undersides of the parking deck will be painted to help reflect fixture light and therefore increase safety and reduce the need

for extra light fixtures. Because Las Vegas is known for its nighttime skyline, exterior lighting systems were carefully designed to preserve that skyline and respect the privacy of adjacent neighborhoods while providing unified lighting throughout. Highlysustainable though not LEED registered, this project even has a valet car wash system that will reclaim its used water. While parking garages will never be considered as “green” or as energy efficient as mass transit, the current generation of garage structures is certainly part of the green movement, providing more healthful environments, being less intrusive of its neighbors and consuming far less of our natural resources than in the past. Whether on a university campus or a downtown street corner, that’s real progress. 
Ian Nestler, AIA, is a principal with PGAL, a national architecture/engineering firm which designs parking structures for public and private sector clients throughout the U.S. He can be reached at inestler@pgal.com.

National Parking Association PARKING September 2010

Parking September 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Parking September 2010