Car Park Architecture - Part 3

I think Cheltenham currently has four multi-story car parks and a new one will be coming when the recently approved North Place development becomes reality.

The Regent Arcade and Beechwood car parks are architecturally bland (as are the shopping centres they are attached to). However, the Grosvenor Terrace Car Park (for some reason not long ago re-named as  Town Centre East ?!) and the Brewery Car Park on the corner of Monson Avenue and St Margarets Road are both good looking structures.

Grosvenor Terrace Car Park or Town Centre East or TCE

I especially like the way this car park straddles the shops below on the angle and the contrast between the simple brick lift/stair block and the more decorative concrete car park exterior works well visually.

Exterior brown vertical concrete panels and blue steel corner detail.

Despite being a functional building, it seems that plenty of thought went into the design. The potential severity of three horizontal layers has been avoided by the proliferation of thin vertical panels on all sides and the trees planted along the "ring road" edge have grown up nicely to act as a partial screen between road and car park.

Trees add additional colour to the view from this side (for most of the year !)

Here is the view along the entrance side:

Entrance side

and the opposite long side...

Side street view.

Its not all right angles though and there is one satisfyingly rounded corner on the corner of Albion Street and the side street.

Curved Car Park corner.

Further round the "ring road" you would do well to ignore the godforsaken wind tunnel that is the Brewery development  and turn your eyes instead to the opposite side of the road and enjoy the much nicer multi-storey car park.

This is a great looking car park - a pleasingly low-rise structure with cream coloured rendered walls, grey steel panels and open parapet which all work together to great effect.

The Brewery Car Park

On the Dunalley Street side it gets even better with a super grey steel-clad polygonal stairwell !

The view from Dunalley Street looking towards St Margarets Road.

and not forgetting the fantastic black and yellow NCP logo against the pleasingly green-streaked wall.

NCP - Nice Car park

That is just the outside but inside there is plenty more lovely concrete and although the ceilings are very low, it still manages not to feel too oppressive due to the light colour of the concrete and reasonable lighting. The polished concrete floor also still seems to reflects light despite a number of years of continuous wear.

Inside

Still on the subject of car park interiors I thought I would finish off with a few pictures taken inside the Waitrose car park where the real interest lies in the fantastic array of suspended metal cable housings, duct  pipes and fixings covering the ceiling. 

Waitrose Car Park Ceiling, Cheltenham

This busy looking ceiling is in marked contrast to the simplicity of Brewery Car Park but both look great in their own way!

The same view with some colour adjustments!

and from a different angle...

Cheltenham Group of Artists - Spring Exhibition

The Cheltenham Group of Artists annual spring exhibition will be running from this Wednesday 17th April until Tuesday 23 April at the Gardens Gallery in Montpellier Gardens, Cheltenham. The gallery is open daily from 10.00 - 6pm

These are my two submissions for selection:

Nic Pehkonen, Orfordness, 2013, Emulsion on canvas and plywood, 75cm x 25cm    

Nic Pehkonen, Broadmead Car Park, 2013, Emulsion on canvas on plywood, 46cm x 46cm

and some relevant links...

http://www.gardensgallery.co.uk

http://cheltenhamgroupartists.org

Car Park Architecture - Part 2

I have been in Bristol a couple of days a week of late and my various routes from Temple Meads have taken me past a number of fantastic examples of concrete architecture which have included the NCP multi-storey car park on Lower Castle Street in Broadmead.

Broadmead multi-storey car park, Lower Castle Street, Bristol

Although flanked on either side by the much bigger Castlemead tower and Marriott Hotel, it nonetheless holds its own architecturally and in fact all three buildings sit satisfying well together. (I will include more on Castlemead Tower in a future post).

Castlemead Tower, Broadmead car park and The Marriott hotel.

I especially like the way the designers employed a split-level construction with this building. Multi-storey car parks usually seem to be built in continuous horizontal layers so perhaps the sloping terrain here led towards this particular architectural solution. Or maybe the designers just fancied trying something different to mirror the slope of the street. Either way, it resulted in giving the whole structure an additional vertical dynamism, a bit like a fault line on a rock face.

Broadmead multi-storey car park facade

A closer inspection reveals that each layer has nicely bevelled-off edges and corners which gives the impression that the two sections are just about to interlock with each other.

Close-up of the nicely designed concrete edges of the parking decks.

Although this is not a plug for National Car Parks, I also happen to think that the NCP logo is a great piece of design in its own right and the contrast between the black on yellow signage and concrete car park walls is visually always very satisfying.

The NCP logo always stands out well.

Referring back to an earlier post on Bristol car parks, I have recently come across a short  Pathé news film from 1961, showcasing the brand new (as it was then) Rupert Street multi-storey car park.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/multi-deck-garage

Car Park Architecture

If you are a lover of concrete architecture then multi-storey car parks don't often disappoint in terms of their visual appeal. There is something hugely satisfying about the way their visible external construction contrasts with the seemingly dark voids of the open interior.

Here are a couple of fantastic examples that I photographed recently in Bristol.

Prince Street multi storey car park, Bristol

With it's amazing concrete lattice work exterior and V-shaped supports, The Prince Street car park is surely one of the most striking buildings in Bristol. With one side of it on a wide road and the opposite side facing directly onto the waterfront it is well placed to be viewed and enjoyed from a variety of angles.

Wow! Not one but two different kinds of lattice work.

A closer view of this amazing facade

and a more detailed view

The Rupert Street car park dates from 1960 (I think) and looks very graceful in appearance with it's six layers and spiralling, fan-like construction.

Rupert Street multi storey car park, Bristol

Nicely angled straight edges giving an overall curved effect

Here you can appreciate how the building seems to fan out from the centre.

I will try and photograph more car parks as and when I can as I think they often get overlooked in terms of architectural merit given that we mostly just want to park our cars as quickly as possible so we can get on with other things. Perhaps it is this ultra functional purpose that often leads architects to come up with such interesting and imaginative designs...

If you feel the need for a nicely illustrated book about car parks I would recommend "The Architecture of Parking" by Simon Henley published by Thames and Hudson. 

Simon Henley, The Architecture of Parking, 2007, Thames & Hudson

In addition to some amazing photographs and well researched text, he also includes many architectural drawings and diagrams which add extra interest to the subject.