January 20, 2011 – Forrester broke ground on Tuesday at the location of the new Glenmont Metro Station Parking Garage, which will be a LEED certified building, helping the county attain its sustainability goals. Congressman Chris Van Hollen, County Executive Isiah Leggett, Councilmembers Nancy Navarro and Nancy Floreen, as well as WMATA Interim General Manager Richard Sarles spoke at the ceremonial groundbreaking.

This second garage at Glenmont Station, which will be located on the west side of Georgia Avenue, will replace one of the station’s Kiss & Ride lots and add 1,200 parking spaces. When the garage is completed, there will be 3,000 total parking spaces at Glenmont.

Metro is managing the design / build project for the County and when completed, the garage will be operated and maintained by Metro. Community workshops were held to solicit input on the design of the parking garage. The garage will have six levels of parking, with one level below ground.

The design will incorporate a number of environmentally sensitive features to earn the garage a LEED rating, including enhanced energy performance design strategies such as daylight harvesting, reducing the garage’s environmental and economic impacts associated with excessive energy use. Additionally, construction operations will focus on techniques to divert construction, demolition and land clearing debris from disposal in landfills in order to redirect recyclable recovered resources back to the manufacturing process. The garage will utilize building products that incorporate recycled content materials, reducing environmental impacts from the extraction and processing of new virgin materials. The project will also utilize regional building materials and products, supporting the use of indigenous resources and reducing the environmental impacts resulting from transportation.

A canopy will connect the garage entrance to the Metrorail entrance. The garage will feature customer assistance phones, extra lighting, digital security cameras, and a police room with window access to the garage to enhance security. The garage is scheduled to open in early 2012.