Site Analysis LaSalle Parking Garage; March 17, 2010

The site is located on a city block that lies between Main Street (South), Third Street (East), North Street (North) and Lafayette Street (West), in Downtown, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the top level of the LaSalle parking garage, a steel reinforced, concrete parking garage that has seven levels, rising five stories. All four corners of the garage have stairways that provide access to all levels, though the Northwest and Southwest stairways are emergency stairways only. The Northeast and Southeast stairways also have elevators and handicap refuge areas. The East face of the garage on the bottom floor, facing Third Street, is developed for commercial use and currently houses a gym/work-out facility. The exterior of the garage has concrete cladding that is hung from the sides of the structure by welded metal clamps.
The top floor of the garage is the focus of the site. It consists of two central ramps, for entry and exiting, that are offset from each other in the north/south direction by about 30 feet. The West ramp, closest to and paralleling Lafayette street, allows vehicles access to the highest level of the garage while the East ramp, closest and running parallel to Third Street, allows vehicles to exit the top-most level of the structure. Both the East and West sides of the garage are spanned by a row of eight, 18 inch square, beveled structural columns that support both the structure and the façade. The North and South sides are supported by four 18 inch by 24 inch beveled structural columns that support both the structure and the façade. Eight pairs of 18X24 inch columns stand flanking both ramps. All columns run from floor to ceiling.
The structure faces the Hancock bank building to the East, the LaSalle government building to the North, a parking lot and several commercial buildings to the South, and an empty deconstructed lot and the River to the West. The garage allows vehicles to enter and exit on the street level of Main Street with State workers only entering on the street level of North Street. Most of the area surrounding the garage is the business district. The primary materials are steel and reinforced concrete and the secondary materials are glass and aluminum.