Boston, MA
Beach Street Garage
Scope/Solutions
The parking garage at 14-40 Beach Street is a ten-level, reinforced concrete parking structure in Boston’s Chinatown. The garage—originally constructed in 1926 for the Jordan Marsh Co. department store—currently houses retail on the ground level and parking on the other seven elevated levels and two below‑grade levels. SGH has assisted the garage’s owners and property managers for many years by performing periodic condition assessments of the structure and developing plans for future repair and maintenance work.
Since 2008, SGH has performed several condition assessments of the Beach Street garage structure and its facade. Our field investigations include visual surveys, sounding at representative areas, and hands-on surveys of the facade using industrial rope access to identify the location and extent of damage and deterioration. Based on our observations, we provided recommendations for remedial work and developed prioritized repair programs to help the owner plan for upcoming projects and maintenance expenses.
SGH subsequently designed repairs and has overseen several rehabilitation projects. We worked with various contractors and collaborated with the project team to phase the repairs to keep the garage operational during the work. Highlights of our repair design include:
- Repairing portions of the cast-in-place concrete structure and facade to address deterioration caused by corrosion of embedded steel reinforcement
- Installing a new traffic-bearing coating to protect the existing structure
- Reconstructing areas of masonry walls and repairing columns at the south facade