Florida International University Parking Garage 5 Market Station

With parking, retail and classroom space, and the university’s new police department, this new mixed-use university complex serves as a landmark for a major campus entrance and a social hub for the university community.

The 30,000-square-foot retail component is designed for flexible business modeling and marketability, with a large centerpiece rotunda that provides a place to eat, socialize, check email, and shop. A covered walkway, glass and aluminum walls, and contemporary urban finishes link the complex to campus themes.

The garage includes 2,100 parking spaces, parking authority offices, and a two-story, 12,560-square-foot university police department complex. The ground floor of the police department includes a refuge area to protect dispatch operations and a squad room that converts into a command center. Doors and windows are protected with automated shutters, and the facility is fully operational for 72 hours on emergency power. The public safety component will be hardened to resist a Category 4 hurricane.

Layering of architectural precast panels on the façade breaks up the overall mass. Stair and elevator cores have concrete, metal and glass exteriors with flat roof and parapet, reveals, and raised architectural banding for added interest.

PGAL resolved challenging traffic and vehicular turnaround movements with a new roadway, which handles 50 percent of new garage traffic. Multiple entrances ease congestion in any one individual area.

While not LEED registered, the complex meets many LEED criteria, including infill site reuse, maximized daylighting, low-VOC and recycled materials, bicycle racks, reflective roof materials, green spaces, drought-resistant plantings, minimal light pollution, showers, and more.