A well-planned hospital parking structure is more than just a convenience, it’s an essential part of a hospital’s overall efficiency, patient experience, and long-term operational success. Unlike standard commercial parking garages, hospital parking structures must account for accessibility, patient safety, intuitive navigation, and integration with the hospital’s emergency and outpatient services.
Hospitals need parking that accommodates patients, visitors, doctors, and emergency responders, all of whom have different needs. Additionally, modern hospitals must factor in sustainability, technology, and future expansion when planning a hospital parking garage.
This guide explores the critical considerations for hospital parking garage construction, from unique requirements to cost-effective design and sustainability solutions.
We’ll also discuss prefabricated parking structures like the Kiwi CarPark System, which offer faster, cost-effective alternatives to traditional construction methods.
Unique Requirements for Hospital Parking Structures
Site Selection and Integration
- Proximity and Accessibility: Positioning the parking structure near hospital entrances reduces walking distances, improving convenience for patients and visitors. Pedestrian bridges and covered walkways offer weather protection.
- Site Topography: Utilizing natural slopes to align parking levels with hospital floors minimizes the need for internal ramps and improves accessibility.
Prioritizing User Safety and Security
- Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED): Open-span designs enhance visibility and surveillance, reducing the risk of crime.
- Enhanced Lighting and Surveillance: Ample LED lighting, CCTV security, and emergency call stations improve safety throughout the structure.
- Ventilated Glass Stair Towers: Transparent stair towers increase visibility and enhance acoustics from inside to outside.
Logical and Intuitive Traffic Flow
- Optimized Layout: Using sloped-floor designs reduces the need for dedicated ramps, maximizing parking efficiency.
- Clear Wayfinding: Color-coded levels, directional signage, and digital parking availability indicators enhance navigation and reduce congestion.
User-Specific Design Considerations
- Targeted Parking Zones: Designate separate areas for staff, patients, and visitors to avoid congestion.
- Emotional Sensitivity: Hospital visitors may be stressed—intuitive, frustration-free parking enhances the patient and visitor experience.
Integrated Accessibility
- Exceeding Accessibility Standards: Hospitals tend to go beyond ADA requirements, by providing more wheelchair-accessible spaces and convenient elevator locations.
- Elevator Installation: Even if not mandated by the building code, hospitals should include multiple elevators in large multi-level structures.
Sustainability and Operational Efficiency
- Green Building Practices: Using low-carbon materials, natural ventilation, and energy-efficient LED lighting lowers operational costs.
- Stormwater Management: Effective drainage systems prevent water damage and protect the structure’s integrity.
- Solar Panel Integration: Incorporating solar panels into the building design can provide renewable energy, offset operational costs, and contribute to hospital sustainability goals.
Technological Integration
- Real-Time Parking Availability Displays: Digital signage reduces frustration and improves efficiency.
- Automated & Simplified Payment Systems: Mobile and contactless payment options speed up transactions.
Multifunctional Considerations
- Evaluate Secondary Uses: While some hospitals consider incorporating retail spaces, pharmacies, or administrative offices into parking structures, this often leads to increased costs and regulatory challenges with open air structures. Adding these uses changes the building classification, leading to significantly higher costs per square foot due to additional code and regulatory requirements.
Procurement Methodology
- Design-Build for Parking Structure Construction: A design-build approach accelerates completion, lowers costs, and offers a single point of accountability.
Operational and Maintenance Considerations
- Operating and Maintenance Considerations: Hospitals must consider the long-term operating and maintenance costs when planning a parking structure. The construction methods chosen can significantly impact ongoing expenses, including repairs, energy consumption, and structural upkeep.
- Durable Materials: Using galvanized steel and UHPC precast concrete minimizes maintenance costs by reducing corrosion and wear over time.
- Flexible Layouts: Implementing sloped floors instead of dedicated ramps improves efficiency and reduces material costs, while also limiting future repair needs.
- Preventative Maintenance Planning: Hospitals should establish a maintenance schedule for lighting, drainage, and structural elements to avoid costly emergency repairs.
- Energy Efficiency: Selecting motion-activated LED lighting and integrating solar panels can reduce operational expenses over the structure’s lifespan.
Community and Aesthetic Integration
- Architectural Compatibility: Parking garages should complement the hospital’s existing buildings.
- Natural Elements: Green walls, landscaping, and façade treatments improve visual appeal.
Key Decisions to Ensure an Effective Hospital Parking Structure
Choose a Parking Structure Design-Builder
Hospital parking garages require specialized expertise. Partnering with an experienced design-build contractor ensures efficiency, cost savings, and a streamlined construction process. Unlike general contractors, specialized parking structure firms understand the complexities of hospital operations, ensuring the design meets accessibility, traffic flow, and safety requirements while adhering to strict medical facility regulations.
A design-build approach also accelerates project timelines, reduces risk, and consolidates accountability under a single entity, leading to fewer change orders and improved project outcomes.
This approach opens up more opportunities for companies who use prefabrication as a construction method.
Choosing the Right Construction Method
- Cast In Place: This method requires significant on-site labor and time, with heavy structural components that demand large, costly foundations.
- Precast Double-Tee: Though faster than cast-in-place, the heavy concrete pieces necessitate substantial foundations and careful logistics for transport and assembly, limiting overall efficiency.
- Prefabricated Panel and Beam: Utilizing lightweight precast UHPC panels and galvanized steel beams, this method reduces foundation requirements, accelerates construction, and enhances flexibility without compromising strength. Our Kiwi CarPark System uses this approach.
Consider a Cost-Plus Add-On Approach
Start with a base structure cost, then request optional pricing for façades, solar panels, EV chargers, covered top levels, and other enhancements. The most significant cost variation in design-build projects lies in the core structural system, not in aesthetic or optional features.
Much like purchasing a vehicle, where the choice is primarily driven by the engine, safety features, and reliability rather than paint color or seat covers, selecting a parking structure should prioritize durability, efficiency, and long-term cost-effectiveness.
Optional elements can be added later, but the foundation of the structure must be selected wisely from the outset to ensure cost savings and operational efficiency over time. This approach allows hospitals to allocate budget efficiently, ensuring that critical structural elements are prioritized while providing flexibility for future upgrades.
By breaking down costs into essential and optional categories, hospitals can make informed decisions about their investment, balancing functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability within their financial constraints.
Parking Structure Layout
An intuitive hospital parking garage layout is essential for providing patients, visitors, and staff with a smooth and efficient experience. Thoughtfully designed structures prioritize clear vehicle flow, guiding drivers seamlessly from entry to parking spaces while minimizing congestion. Open-span designs, which eliminate interior columns, enhance usability by creating unobstructed parking bays and wider driving lanes, making navigation easier for users.
Using a sloped-floor design (instead of dedicated ramps) optimizes space and reduces construction area by allowing vehicles to transition smoothly between levels, with parking bays arranged side by side. This layout maximizes space efficiency, ensuring every square foot of the structure is utilized effectively and enabling drivers to easily locate open spaces without unnecessary loops or confusion.
A highly efficient hospital parking structure will typically use widths in increments of 18m (60 feet), matching the standard parking bay width. Thus, a two-bay garage would measure 36m wide, and a three-bay garage would be 54m wide. The length of the structure can vary based on specific site constraints and hospital requirements.
Hospitals should also focus on maximizing the average square footage per parking space throughout the structure. Efficient layouts reduce wasted space, lower construction costs, and increase the total number of available parking spots, delivering a cost-effective and practical solution for healthcare facilities.
Open or Enclosed Parking Garage
Open-air parking structures are significantly more cost-effective due to reduced fireproofing, HVAC, and plumbing requirements.
They also offer enhanced safety features, such as natural ventilation and improved visibility. We have written a full article on this topic Open-Air Parking Structures.
Use Natural Lighting
Daylighting strategies reduce energy costs by minimizing the need for artificial lighting during daylight hours, which can significantly lower electricity expenses over time.
Additionally, increased natural light enhances visibility, improving safety and creating a more comfortable and welcoming environment for patients, visitors, and hospital staff.
Incorporating skylights, open designs, and strategically placed windows can further optimize these benefits while contributing to an energy-efficient and sustainable parking structure.
Plan for Future Expansion
Hospitals should consider long-term flexibility when designing parking structures. Expansion can occur both vertically and horizontally, and both options must be factored into the initial design.
Vertical expansion requires appropriately sized foundations to support additional levels in the future, ensuring that parking capacity can be increased without major structural modifications. Horizontal expansion, on the other hand, necessitates planning for adjacent land use, traffic flow adjustments, and potential infrastructure modifications.
By planning for both vertical and horizontal expansion from the outset, hospitals can ensure their parking structures remain functional, adaptable, and cost-effective for decades to come.
Sustainability & Green Building Practices for Hospital Parking Structures
- Solar Panels on the Roof: Hospital parking garages provide large, flat, unshaded rooftop space, making them ideal for solar energy generation. The vast roof area of a parking structure is often free of mechanical obstructions, maximizing solar panel efficiency and energy output. Hospitals can leverage this space to generate renewable energy, reducing electricity costs and supporting sustainability initiatives.
- Solar Façade Panels: Installing solar panels on the façade of a parking structure not only generates power but also provides passive shading, reducing heat gain and lowering cooling costs inside the garage.
- EV Charging Stations: As hospitals see an increasing number of electric vehicles used by staff and visitors, integrating EV charging stations into parking structures supports sustainability efforts while offering added convenience.
- Stormwater Collection & Reuse: Parking structures can incorporate rainwater harvesting systems to capture and reuse stormwater for landscape irrigation or greywater applications, reducing overall water consumption and supporting green building initiatives.
Cost to Build a Hospital Parking Structure
There are several factors that influence the cost of a parking garage for a hospital. These factors are fully discussed in our article “How much does it cost to build a parking structure.”
One of the most influential factors is the type of construction method used.
There are three main construction methods for parking structures in North America:
- Cast In Place: This method requires significant on-site labor and time, with heavy structural components that demand large, costly foundations.
- Precast Double-Tee: Though faster than cast-in-place, the heavy concrete pieces necessitate substantial foundations and careful logistics for transport and assembly, limiting overall efficiency.
- Prefabricated Panel and Beam: Utilizing lightweight precast UHPC panels and galvanized steel beams, this method reduces foundation requirements, accelerates construction, and enhances flexibility without compromising strength. Our Kiwi CarPark System uses this approach.
The table below shows the cost differences for the different types of construction methods. It shows that using a prefabricated panel and beam system, an hospital parking garage can cost roughly $28,000 to $35,000 per parking space.
Operating & Maintenance Costs for Hospital Parking Structures
Hospitals must consider not just construction costs but also long-term operating expenses when planning a parking structure. Proper design and material choices can significantly reduce maintenance and operational costs, ensuring the facility remains cost-effective over its lifecycle.
UHPC & Galvanized Steel for Durability
Using Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) and galvanized steel in hospital parking structures enhances durability and reduces maintenance needs. UHPC eliminates the requirement for epoxy topping layers, a common maintenance concern, leading to substantial cost savings over time.
Galvanized steel provides superior corrosion resistance, particularly in regions exposed to de-icing salts, vehicle emissions, and weather-related wear.
By incorporating these materials, hospitals can extend the lifespan of their parking garages while minimizing costly repairs.
Energy-Efficient Lighting
Motion-activated LED lighting minimizes energy consumption by illuminating only active areas, lowering utility costs while maintaining safety and visibility.
Hospitals operate 24/7, making energy efficiency a priority to reduce ongoing electricity expenses. Additionally, integrating daylighting strategies, open façades, can further decrease artificial lighting needs while creating a well-lit, secure environment.
Intuitive Layouts & Wayfinding Efficiency
Efficient, well-planned layouts limit the need for complex and ambiguous signage, reducing the time and cost associated with managing wayfinding systems.
A logical and intuitive parking structure design helps visitors, staff, and patients navigate the facility easily, decreasing congestion and improving overall user experience.
Effective Drainage Systems
Properly engineered drainage systems channel rainwater directly into storm systems, reducing the risk of water pooling and structural damage.
Poor drainage can accelerate concrete deterioration and lead to expensive repairs, making proactive water management essential for long-term operational savings.
Low-Maintenance Materials
Selecting materials resistant to weathering, corrosion, and wear, like galvanized steel and precast UHPC concrete, further reduces long-term upkeep costs.
Unlike traditional cast-in-place concrete, precast components are manufactured in controlled environments, minimizing defects and improving structural longevity. These materials help hospitals avoid costly maintenance cycles and extend the service life of their parking structures.
Temporary Parking Structures for Hospitals
Can hospitals build temporary parking structures? You may have seen some videos or images of parking decks being erected in a few hours that look like robust scaffolding and can be dismounted and moved from parking lot to parking lot.
While there are some solutions in Europe for this type of solution, finding temporary parking deck options for North America is more difficult. However, there are options for “demountable parking structures.”
The primary distinction between demountable and temporary structures lies in their design and intended lifespan. Demountable structures are built with structural elements designed for disassembly, often using bolted connections to allow for reuse.
These systems can be unbolted and relocated without significant damage to the components, making them ideal for redeployment.
In contrast, temporary structures prioritize rapid installation for short-term use, often sacrificing long-term durability and adaptability for convenience.
While temporary structures are typically intended to last less than a year, demountable structures are designed to remain in place for longer periods, often making them a more cost-effective solution over a 10-year timeframe.
Learn more about the difference between temporary parking structures demountable structures in our blog: Temporary Parking Structures in North America
Future Trends in Hospital Parking Structures
- AI & Smart Parking Systems: Real-time analytics optimize traffic flow and improve space utilization.
- Parking Apps: Mobile apps allow patients and staff to reserve parking spaces in advance.
- Automated Parking Solutions: Robotic valet systems maximize space efficiency and reduce congestion.
- Self-Sustaining Parking Garages: Solar power and battery storage create energy-independent facilities.
- EV-Only Parking Zones: Adapting to increasing electric vehicle usage with dedicated charging areas.
- Future-Proofing for Autonomous Vehicles: Wider lanes, designated drop-off areas, and smart infrastructure for self-driving technology.
Learn More About Hospital Parking Structures
Hospital parking structures are essential to the everyday operations of the hospital.
From intuitive designs and prefabricated construction to technologies like app integration and EV charging, modern garages are evolving to meet today’s demands.
Kiwi Newton has extensive experience in parking structure construction, delivering durable, low-maintenance solutions tailored to client needs. By managing the entire process internally, we consistently deliver projects on time, within budget, and to the highest standards of sustainability.
We recently completed a parking structure project for the Government of Newfoundland where we designed and built a 1,000 car parking structure for the New Mental Health and Addictions hospital in St. Johns.
Explore our Kiwi CarPark page, or contact us to learn how we can help your hospital plan, design and build an efficient and effective parking garage.
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