The Cedar Street Parking Deck & Retail is a unique piece of civic infrastructure -  designed from the beginning with the intention to reinforce the distinctive urban qualities and human scale of Chatham St. and of Downtown Cary. The project is a key component of the town's rapidly developing commercial district, serving a vital role in expanding access to parking, retail, and commercial activities while increasing  density and walkability within  the downtown.  This mid block infill development  will allow locals and visitors alike to more easily access what is on offer in  the downtown. 

Sited at the  midblock of East Chatham St. between Academy Street and N. Walker Street, the building's massing and façade detailing were developed in an effort to maintain the scale and rhythm of the expanding streetscape and in keeping with projected growth anticipated development along adjacent parcels. The material pallet for the development draws on a rich tradition of local masonry craft utilizing brick veneer masonry and terracotta to provide warm, robust, and natural building materials. The  taught masonry volume which encloses the parking structure, and  is articulated through unique masonry profiles which define  each bay. These bays are infilled with an ornamental bronze screen that animates and unifies the experience along the primary facades. The screen is composed of a delicate chevron screen pattern that expresses a gradient in density from top to bottom articulated by a series of semi circles and full circle elements throughout the composition. 

 The primary public stair and elevator  tower is located on the southwest corner on E. Chatham Street, the stair tower acts as a beacon and  visual wayfinding device along E. Chatham St. marking the primary  public pedestrian arrival and access point for the parking deck. The tower rises vertically - a steel spiral stair encased in ivory terracotta  in stark  contrast to the red brick parking structure. The stair tower  hovers  just above the ground offering a counterpoint in both expression and experience to the sense of weight and mass parking structure’s brick shell and concrete interior. The terracotta cladding is a one of a kind tension cablenet system suspended entirely from the stair itself. The  top  floor balcony offers a moment for pause, a unique space for viewing the streetlife of Chatham Street and the experience of Downtown.