The Port of Oakland retained the John F. Brown Company and murakami/Nelson to assist them with planning the Interim and Permanent Rent-a-Car (RAC) Facilities at Oakland International Airport.

In preparation for this effort we visited airports along the west coast and reviewed RAC plans at airports throughout the United States. The programming effort began with developing and distributing a detailed questionnaire to all the participating RACs about their current and future spatial, functional and infrastructure requirements. Their response formed the basis of the program for the interim and permanent facilities.

That information was also incorporated into the overall planning for the parking garage and Customer Service Building (CSB) by the master architect (MAJV) for the airport. murakami/Nelson evaluated garage and CSB plans prepared by the MAJV for conformance with the program and RAC requirements and represented RAC interests in meetings with the Oakland Building and Fire Departments as part of the MAJV code review process. Finally, we prepared detailed garage and CSB layouts for RAC operations based upon eight participating RAC companies. Our involvement helped ensure that basic RAC requirements such as extra high floor heights, easy customer access to both floors of the facility, access directly from the CSB RAC spaces to the garage, and appropriate public counter areas were incorporated into the design.

Concurrently, murakami/Nelson had surveys and geotechnical and utilities studies prepared for the 14 1/2 acre North Field site selected for the Interim Rent-a-Car Facility. With that information we developed conceptual site plans for an interim facility that included a 15,000 sq. ft. customer service building, individual rental car areas, a common QTA (Quick Turn Around or car servicing and washing facility), and improvements to surrounding roads. Since the rental car companies were responsible for constructing the interim facility, but had to meet Port of Oakland standards, murakami/Nelson developed a design manual for the project that included architectural, civil, landscape, structural, mechanical and electrical criteria. This document became the basis for monitoring the work of the RAC’s architect. murakami/Nelson attended design and construction meetings, coordinated the project with the City of Oakland and reviewed design and construction documents. Additionally, we participated with Port staff and consultants in the overall signage program for the North Field area, including directional signage to the main airport.