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Oct. 20, 2015 — Often called the "heart of the Gold Coast," Pompano Beach, Fla., offers tourists the opportunity to relax on the beach, enjoy fine dining, and experience terrific shopping. Soon, tourists and locals on the city’s eastern edge will see a new parking structure that will enhance the skyline thanks, in part, to Birdair’s PTFE membrane canopies.
The $19 million parking garage near the Pompano Fishing Pier will provide 609 parking spaces, in an area the city plans to develop into a retail center featuring restaurants and shops. The parking garage’s design will evoke its nautical surroundings — with 16 sail-shaped façade canopies by Birdair.
Kaufman Lynn is the design-builder on the project, working with the architectural firm Currie Sowards Aguila and structural engineer LEAP and Associates. The group, needing something special to make the parking garage attractive and unique, turned to Birdair, the expert on custom tensile structures, to design and construct the PTFE canopies.
In addition to the 16 sail-shaped façade canopies, Birdair will also provide 15 identical rooftop fabric membrane units. All told, the total surface area of membrane will be more than 27,000 square feet. Birdair’s scope of work includes the design, fabrication, supply, and installation of the PTFE membrane, structural steel, cables, and clamping.
The parking garage’s beach-side location requires corrosive-resistant, durable building materials. Corrosive-resistant concrete, stainless steel hardware and high-quality glass will be used on the structure, in addition to Birdair’s PTFE membrane.
PTFE, or polytetrafluoroethylene, is known by the brand name Teflon and coats a woven fiberglass to form a membrane that is extremely durable and weather resistant. PTFE fiberglass membranes can be installed in climates ranging from the frigid Arctic to scorching desert heat with a product life in some cases exceeding 30 years, so the material is well-suited to hot and humid Florida beach weather.
PTFE membrane can be used to construct roofs, façades, free-standing buildings, skylights, or accent enclosures. Completely different from other building materials both aesthetically and functionally, it offers the kind of blend of uncommon physical and geometric characteristics that often make tensile membrane structures iconic. In Pompano Beach, the parking garage’s dramatic, nautical look will create an inviting space that will easily trump the functional appearance of a typical parking garage.
For more information about Birdair, visit www.birdair.com.
