Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Lume Apartment complex in Menlo Park offers 441 apartments and includes below market rate units. As the site had zoning height restrictions and is located in a flood plane that made below grade excavation cost prohibitive, limited space was available to accommodate a parking facility to support the project.
After studying a variety of options, the Watry Design team recommended a fully automated parking solution to meet the project’s needs. Watry Design worked closely with developer Greystar and the design team to select a system and integrate it into the overall design. The end result is a parking facility with the capacity to house up to 470 vehicles within a much smaller footprint than a traditional parking garage.
The system selected for the project was designed and manufactured by Sotefin and installed by Parkworks. When residents enter the parking facility, dynamic signage directs them to an available transfer cabin that contains a turntable. After parking the vehicle on the turntable, they exit and follow instructions on a panel outside the cabin to signal the system to park the car. A dolly retrieves the car from the sealed transfer cabin and delivers it into the automated system. Cars can be requested for retrieval via app. Once the system delivers it to the transfer cabin, the turntable will rotate the car so the driver can drive straight out of the facility.
The facility also offers fully automated electric vehicle charging. Specialized charging bays feature a robotic arm capable of attaching and removing a level 2 charger. When a charging session is requested, the system moves the car into one of the charging bays, plugs in the charger, and then disconnects and relocates the car when the session is completed.
See the system at work:
Project Details
- Owner: Greystar
- Design Architect: BDE Architecture & Heller Manus Architecture
- Parking System Provider: ParkWorks
- Parking System: Sotefin
- Project Status: Construction
- Parking Stalls: 441
- Levels: 3
