Parking Garage Facade Ventilation Mesh System

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Reservoir Woods

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System: Parkade
Attachment Method: Eclipse™
Metal Fabric Pattern: Scale and Mid-Balance

Project: Reservoir Woods
Location: Waltham, MA
Architect: Spagnolo Gisness & Associates, Inc. - Boston, MA
Project Manager: John Moriarty & Associates - Winchester, MA
Structural Engineer: Capobianco & Associates, Inc. - Boston, MA
Facility End Use: Parking Garage
Renovation or New Construction: New Construction
Completion Date: December 2006

Project Details:

Cambridge Architectural recently utilized its design build method to outfit the exterior of a newly constructed parking facility at Reservoir Woods, a 120-acre office complex in Waltham, MA, in glistening woven metal fabric.

Cambridge's collaborative efforts with the architect, through the design-build process, played a vital role in the development of a successful strategy for the screening of the garage, while additionally providing a cost-effective building solution.

Exuding a sophisticated image, the four-story, 871-space parking garage is cloaked in a breathtaking Parkade mesh system. Cambridge's Scale and Mid-Balance patterns, which feature large-scaled, flexible open weaves, were specified to allow natural day lighting and concurrent shading and screening of the structure. The luminous mesh panels were fastened with Cambridge's Eclipse™ tension attachment hardware, which securely holds the seemingly delicate, yet indestructible fabric in tension.

In addition to its intrinsic visual appeal, the metal fabric system is extremely functional. The openness of the metal fabric reduces HVAC requirements, facilitates airflow and ensures visibility throughout the parking structure. Rugged and durable, the material is resistant to scratches, denting and corrosion, and serves as an aesthetically pleasing method of fall protection. Additionally, the metal fabric system is a sustainable building product, featuring a high degree of recycled content, maintaining a long life-cycle and providing solar shading and light pollution reduction.

The parking facility was completed in December 2006 and is fully operational. The structure was built as part of a $16 million development of the Reservoir Woods office complex at the site of the former global research headquarters of Polaroid Corporation. The first-rate, contemporary complex dramatically and beautifully contrasts with its setting amid the rolling, picturesque woodlands of New England.

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