Boston Airport Gets New Rental Car Center
The new $310 million, Consolidated Rental Car Center has opened at Boston Logan International Airport. Designed by PGAL, the 120,000 sf customer service center and 4- level garage has space for all 9 rental car companies having operating agreements with Logan to work in one common building–Advantage, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thrifty. The Center was designed to achieve LEED Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. It features 616 solar panels on the garage roof, providing 150 kilowatts of power.
PGAL led a collaborative team approach to perform a Concept Design and Environmental Permit study that led to the programming, planning, and development for this unique consolidated rental car complex, or ConRAC.
Constructed over multiple phases, this new complex replaces rental car agencies which had been operating at Boston-Logan essentially in-place. It is built directly over the former rental car spaces within the Southwest Service Area.
The 49-acre site is the center for ground transportation operations at the Airport. The environmentally friendly redevelopment includes a four-level parking structure for 3,200 ready/return/storage spaces, a 120,000 SF customer terminal, and four limited maintenance service areas for rental car vehicular fleets.
Additional program elements included multiple roadway modifications to improve and reduce roadway and terminal curb congestion, a bus access ramp supporting the two-level customer terminal and a unified common busing system for all of Boston-Logan, and improved facilities for the Airport's taxi, bus and limousine pools.
Besides a complex building program, this project incorporated extensive environmental mitigation measures for greenhouse gases, energy consumption, and water quality and usage.
Additional benefits include buffering adjacent neighborhoods from ground transportation operations and definition of Airport boundaries within the residential community. Subsequent to the planning and permit effort, PGAL provided full design and architectural services as the Architect of Record for the facilities components of the project, designed for Silver LEED Certification.