Arlington Transit Operations & Maintenance Facility

The Project

A three-story, dual-use building comprised of a bus maintenance garage with associated industrial workshops and office space, a four-story parking garage, and photovoltaic (PV)-canopy over the bus parking area. The facility provides operations, maintenance, and parking for Arlington’s growing ART bus fleet

Structural Features

The Operations and Maintenance Facility is a three-story, structural steel building. The first two stories are designed for industrial functions, which include masonry exterior and partition walls integrated with structural steel framing and a large two-story tall open space in the bus maintenance area with crane rails and fall protection rails.

The third story is designed for office use, which includes light gage exterior and partition walls, modern finishes, and an occupiable terrace area with planters. The exterior finishes include a variety of façades including brick, curtain walls, windows, metal paneling, and large overhead doors for the buses. The variety of façades and building uses required extensive detailing to produce an integrated structural system.

The Parking Garage is a four-story, concrete-framed building with precast panel façades. A large exterior canopy over the bus parking – composed of castellated structural steel beams – supports a vast number of photovoltaic panels and equipment to recharge the electric buses. Many of the beam spans are as long as 60 to 100 feet and often cantilever over 15 feet so that the columns could be located to not conflict with bus driving lanes.