Durham Parking Garage: Nature is the Throughline, Six Locals

Functional art elements included very high requirements for parking garage ventilation, visual screening of the parking garage, wind loads, and seismic movement along with the aesthetic requirements of representing the community as a whole and speaking to people individually. Parasoleil used a custom MESH approach to the pattern with the anodized ParaClad-200 structural system and a Native Turquoise Patina powder coat finish.

The lenticular design of the panels allowed for more ventilation and created a large canvas for the anamorphic tree images to be seen from opposite ends of the architecture.

This public art project promoted the new parking deck as a vibrant, modern environment for the downtown culture and surrounding neighborhood. The design asked for a permanent, low-maintenance art screen to meet local vehicle screening code while allowing enough airflow to ventilate the space from carbon monoxide fumes. The flexing movement of the parking deck and seismic requirements added yet another element to the metal wall mounted sculpture.

To satisfy the mission of Durham County’s public art program and building code requirements, the artists designed the 7,500 SF elevation parking garage façade with ventilated cladding that articulated three dimensionally across the vertical surface of the building. It has two intentional sightlines where the planes of the panels align to create images of three summer trees from one end of the installation and three different winter trees from the other end of the structure, all six trees being native to the Durham geography.