Pillar Protector – a case study
When looking at refurbishing their Eldon Square car park, Newcastle City Council looked to Pillar Protectors to help them protect vehicles and the structure, while also improving pedestrian wayfinding.
Built in the mid 1970’s, Eldon Square car park is an iconic structure attached to the shopping centre of the same name. Built as a continuous spiral ramp the car park has concrete pillars on the internal and external radii. A central core provides access to the stairs and lift for pedestrians.
The refurbishment included adopting colours for each of the eight levels to aid orientation. This was to be supplemented with clear numbering so that users leaving the central core could navigate in the right direction back to their car without having to spend too much time walking up or down the spiral.
The Pillar Protectors that were commissioned were placed on the external columns. The base design reflected the appropriate colour for each level and also carried the relevant level number with directional arrows showing levels above and below.
One of the other features of the car park is that there are three spaces between each outer column. There was a tendency for drivers to occupy the middle spaces first which meant space wasn’t used optimally and a tendency for queues to form as cars made their way upwards to find a space they were happy with. Pillar protection removed some of the psychological concerns of drivers as the both they and the column now had protection.
A further benefit of the project is that it attracted the support of the shopping centre. Keen to support the night time economy and the food destinations on offer, the ultimate designs included high quality graphic images to encourage users to eat locally.
Pillar Protectors were simply installed with, in most cases, a zip on the long edge. The result is a car park interior that strongly projects the image of the refurbished car park, provide protection to cars and the structure, enhances pedestrian navigation and wayfinding and supports the messaging that there is a strong retail offer available which the car park supports.
