Motor Mart Garage MA

Motor Mart Garage is an adaptive reuse project in downtown Boston that transforms an existing multi-story parking structure into residential condominiums. Designed by CBT for CIM Group, the project demonstrates creative site utilization by preserving the existing precast concrete garage structure and building vertically above it, a practical solution that maintains ground-floor parking while adding market-rate housing to Boston's constrained residential market.

The engineering challenge centers on the tower-above-garage strategy. The existing precast garage structure, originally designed for vehicle loads and horizontal spans, must now support the additional vertical loads of a residential tower. The new tower employs UPHC (Ultra-High Performance Concrete) panels attached to a unitized curtain wall system, a material choice that minimizes facade dead load while maintaining structural integrity and weather resistance. The UPHC panels' superior compressive strength and durability make them well-suited to supporting themselves and the curtain wall components without requiring excessive spandrel depth or additional backup structure. The connection between the new tower envelope and the existing garage roof required careful detailing to accommodate differential movement, thermal expansion, and structural deflection between the legacy concrete structure below and the modern facade system above, a common retrofit challenge where new high-performance systems must interface with aging infrastructure.