Why did you refuse that?” George Costanza asks Jerry in a 1996 episode of “Seinfeld.” “Everybody loves a package.”
That might have been true back then, when Amazon was a mere online bookstore and receiving a package hadn’t become part of the daily routine. Today, anyone managing a decent-sized apartment or condo community may find the onslaught of packages overwhelming. With residents able to get delivery of anything from a pack of gum, to a $600 iPhone, to the refrigerated ingredients for that night’s dinner, multifamily complexes are awash in a swirling tide of cardboard boxes and plastic bags.
“The exponential growth of Amazon and other package delivery services has had a profound impact on the design of today’s multifamily communities,” says Rohit Anand, AIA, NCARB, Principal, KTGY Architecture + Planning. “Everything from groceries, to dry cleaning, to traditional online purchases is being delivered on a daily basis, leaving it up to property managers to determine how best to distribute them to residents.” In some cases, says Anand, residents expect around-the-clock access to their packages due to their busy schedules.
The solution: dedicated package delivery centers. Such facilities have been around for the last decade or so in some multifamily communities, but have grown in number and sophistication as the flood of packages has risen, and as residents’ reliance on them has gone up exponentially. Apartment managers and condominium associations also have to be concerned about legal liabilities associated with lost or damaged packages, and the mounting cost of staff hours devoted to accept and deliver packages.
DEFINING THE PACKAGE CENTER
A package center is a dedicated, secure space for delivered packages to be stored until residents can pick them up (or, in some cases, have them delivered directly to their units). Some centers take the form of a traditional mailroom, staffed with personnel to retrieve and manage packages for residents. But employing enough staff to allow residents 24/7 access to their packages can become difficult and expensive, so package delivery centers are automating.
Automated systems, such as those provided by Package Concierge or Parcel Pending, store packages in secure lockers. When a courier delivers a package, he/she will follow the integrated touchscreen’s prompts to enter the recipient’s name and select an appropriately sized locker. A locker will then open and the package can be placed inside.
Once the locker door is closed, a text message is sent automatically to the recipient alerting the person of the package’s arrival and providing a unique PIN. To get the package, the resident need only enter the PIN and the locker door will automatically open. Residents can access their packages any time, day or night.
The Palisades at Sierra del Oro, Corona, Calif., developed by MBK Rental Living, uses an automated center to give residents 24/7 access to deliveries. Photo: MBK Rental Living
Due to the ever-increasing volume of deliveries, package centers are getting bigger and bigger. “Prior to the recession, we would allocate about one square foot of wall area per unit when designing a package room,” says Anand. “We later doubled that number to two square feet, and now are finding that we need to set aside three square feet per unit in some of the newest residential communities.”
Kass Management offers a service called Doorman, where packages are collected at an off-site location until residents can arrange for pickup. “We wanted a solution that addressed the need, yet was still economical,” says Kass’s Mark Durakovic, Principal.
Steven Fifield, President of Fifield Companies, says his company is even coordinating deliveries of “lifestyle-service” providers—Pilates instructors, dog groomers, personal chefs—who perform in-home services for apartment and condo dwellers.
Then there’s the proliferation of food-delivery services like Peapod and Blue Apron. To keep food from spoiling, package centers are starting to incorporate refrigerated rooms or lockers. RMK Management Corp. is retrofitting some properties with coolers and installing refrigeration rooms in new developments. “Refrigeration was virtually nonexistent before the recession,” Anand says. “Today, it is offered in approximately 10% of new residential communities.”
IT’S A COMMUNITY AFFAIR
Many rental and condominium communities integrate package centers into high-traffic areas. Not only does this make it easier for couriers to find the center and deliver packages, it also makes receiving a package a neighborly event.
If planned and designed appropriately, package centers can strengthen community ties among residents. The inclusion of communal tables and recycling bins gives residents the option to open their packages immediately while socializing with their neighbors. “Ultimately, it’s about the resident experience,” says Anand. “As designers, how can we create a community where serendipitous encounters lead to long-lasting relationships among residents?”
What about drone deliveries? Now that Amazon Prime Air and others are toying with the idea, figuring how best to integrate drone deliveries with package centers may prove to be a bit of a head-scratcher for designers. “Drones and packaging centers will need to be compatible,” says Rick Fletcher, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, MBK Homes.
But large-scale package delivery via drones does not appear to be imminent. There are plenty of logistical and regulatory hurdles Amazon and its online siblings will have to overcome before the skies will be filled with the sonorous buzz of package-laden drones.
With the Package Concierge touchscreen at Village Plaza, Chapel Hill, N.C., designed by KTGY Architecture, the tenant follows the touchscreen prompts, enters a PIN, and the correct locker automatically opens. Photo: courtesy KTGY Architecture
Related Stories
| Mar 22, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg unveils plans for New York City’s largest new affordable housing complex since the ’70s
Plans for Hunter’s Point South, the largest new affordable housing complex to be built in New York City since the 1970s, include new residences for 5,000 families, with more than 900 in this first phase. A development team consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies, and Monadnock Construction has been selected to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space.
| Mar 17, 2011
Perkins Eastman launches The Green House prototype design package
Design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to join The Green House project and NCB Capital Impact in announcing the launch of The Green House Prototype Design Package. The Prototype will help providers develop small home senior living communities with greater efficiency and cost savings—all to the standards of care developed by The Green House project.
| Mar 11, 2011
Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts
The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.
| Mar 11, 2011
Mixed-income retirement community in Maryland based on holistic care
The Green House Residences at Stadium Place in Waverly, Md., is a five-story, 40,600-sf, mixed-income retirement community based on a holistic continuum of care concept developed by Dr. Bill Thomas. Each of the four residential floors houses a self-contained home for 12 residents that includes 12 bedrooms/baths organized around a common living/social area called the “hearth,” which includes a kitchen, living room with fireplace, and dining area.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 1, 2011
How to make rentals more attractive as the American dream evolves, adapts
Roger K. Lewis, architect and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes in the Washington Post about the rising market demand for rental housing and how Building Teams can make these properties a desirable choice for consumer, not just an economically prudent and necessary one.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Orleans' rebuilt public housing architecture gets mixed reviews
The architecture of New Orleans’ new public housing is awash with optimism about how urban-design will improve residents' lives—but the changes are based on the idealism of an earlier era that’s being erased and revised.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable community center to serve Angelinos in need
Harbor Interfaith Services, a nonprofit serving the homeless and working poor in the Harbor Area and South Bay communities of Los Angeles, engaged Withee Malcolm Architects to design a new 15,000-sf family resource center. The architects, who are working pro bono for the initial phase, created a family-centered design that consolidates all programs into a single building. The new three-story space will house a resource center, food pantry, nursery and pre-school, and administrative offices, plus indoor and outdoor play spaces and underground parking. The building’s scale and setbacks will help it blend with its residential neighbors, while its low-flow fixtures, low-VOC and recycled materials, and energy-efficient mechanical equipment and appliances will help it earn LEED certification.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
