Construction on Glendale Community College’s first parking structure is now complete. The $26.1 million facility has six levels, including one below grade, with 1,169 spaces for cars. McCarthy also completed work on 101 new surface spaces in an adjacent lot.
Since the 336,180-square-foot facility is situated on a hillside to the east, construction required custom formwork to support the placement of concrete on the hill. The result is a structure where vehicles can enter from the hillside
directly onto the first four floors. On the opposite side from the incline, the northwest corner has a pedestrian bridge to a standalone elevator tower that services each level of the structure.
The structure was constructed with a ductile moment frame to resist lateral forces during an earthquake. McCarthy also reinforced the concrete structure by post tensioning it so that it may offset external loads from daily vehicle usage.
During construction, McCarthy had to maintain open access between the campus and a large parking lot on the other side of the construction site. To do this, McCarthy installed a temporary, 70-foot stairway that allowed construction 
crews to work unhampered and limited the inconvenience for those parking in the upper lot. In addition, the college created off-site parking for students and staff for the duration of construction.
Designed by International Parking Design of Sherman Oaks, Calif., the project features a $2.8 million solar panel system on the fourth and sixth levels. A joint venture between the school and Glendale Water and Power, the panels are expected to generate 580,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, which is 10 percent of the school’s energy usage.
About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies and has been one of the nation’s leading parking structure builders since the advent of the modern parking structure in the 1960s. The company has delivered nearly 400 parking facilities throughout the United States, with parking spaces for more than 70,000 cars in California alone. The firm offers general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for parking structures; healthcare, educational, mixed-use, laboratory, biotechnical, retail, entertainment, industrial, multifamily and microelectronics facilities; green buildings; office buildings; tenant interiors; and bridges and highways. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.
