The site was envisioned as a link between the retail core and Pikes Market on the other side; there is a huge amount of people moving back and forth between those areas, we feel [the cladding] beautified the project. This is really important for the City of Seattle in this iconic piece of downtown | – | Lee R. Winn Winn and Associates |
Spanning the corner of the most populated thoroughfare in downtown Seattle, the 351,000-sq.-ft. 3rd and Pine Parking Garage bridges the gap between the downtown shopping district and the local farming merchants of Pike Place Market. Mirroring a larger city-wide effort to revitalize the area, the 50-year-old garage was ready for a new look.
“Enhancing the exterior of the garage would further shield the layers of cars inside and provide a more finished look for the building, while helping us attract a high-end tenant in the retail-level space,” said Bob Beauchemin, senior vice president of Portland-based Avalon Holdings, the garage’s owner. “The biggest challenge was that we were working within an existing structure. We had to come in and say, ‘How can the cladding fit over the existing structure like it was made for it?’”
While searching for a shell that could both provide a functional backdrop for urban-style retail signage and follow the structure’s curve, architect Lee R. Winn of Winn Associates (formerly part of Sienna Architecture) discovered CPI Daylighting’s single-glazed 10mm Pentaglas® system.
“This product allowed areas of the garage to be enclosed, while keeping others open for ventilation,” said Winn. “We found that it was visually pleasing, which would still allow the life inside and the structure to show, but also provide a backdrop for building signage which would provide an additional source of revenue for the owner.
“We were able to work with CPI to curve the corner pieces as opposed to segmenting them, which made for a much better solution that actually allowed the building’s curve to translate through the CPI product, creating a seamless translation of the building,” said Winn.
The two-phased construction began in July of 2008 with the installation of 24,000 sq. ft. of 10mm Pentaglas® developed by CPI Daylighting with aluminum supports that tie each panel back to the concrete ramp portion of the parking garage. This allowed large, seamless panels weighing less than 2 lbs. per square foot to be installed from the first to the ninth floor inside out, keeping the construction schedule on track and promoting safety.
The Ice White Matte glazing of the Pentaglas® creates an almost “Times Square” look that is doing its own part to bring the neighborhood back since project completion in early April 2009. “The site was envisioned as a link between the retail core and Pike’s Market on the other side; there’s a huge amount of people moving back and forth between those areas,” said Winn. “We feel [the cladding] beautified the project. This is really important for the City of Seattle in this iconic piece of downtown.” | 
