MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - Intermodal Car Rental Center

To serve the traveling public in an efficient manner, the Florida Department of Transportation decided to consolidate all rental car agencies serving the Miami International Airport under one roof, the first facility of its kind in Miami.

Turner & Townsend Heery/Sequeira & Gavarrete, Inc. was retained as architect of record to provide architecture, overall A/E coordination, and construction administration services for the new $365 million Miami Intermodal Center (MIC) Rental Car Center (RCC). Balancing the RCC’s technical purpose, its role as a gateway, and community context, the design team incorporated transparency and translucency through the use of metal screening devices in the stairs that also help reduce its mammoth scale. The screen system affords an elegant solution to a utilitarian structure and makes a gesture to Miami’s recognizable features of natural light and openness

The project presented a number of technical and design challenges, owing to the size and function of the facility. Air on each floor must be exhausted continuously to achieve six air changes per hour and is accomplished with more than 35 large exhaust fans located throughout the facility. The center offers passengers one location with rapid transportation to and from the airport and provides convenient access and connects to various transportation systems. A “gateway” to South Florida, the Rental Car Center is one of the signature structures and serves approximately 150,000 commuters and travelers each day.

The RCC is vast; with four levels covering 3.4 million SF the structure provides parking for 6,500 vehicles. It consists of three major building elements:  the ready return, the quick turnaround areas, and the customer service lobby.  Each level covers 830,000 SF, the equivalent of 20 acres per floor, and is allocated for rental car companies. The Quick Turnaround Area (QTA) includes fueling (total of 120 dispensers), fluid top-off, and washing operations (total of 42 wash bays).  The RCC, the first multi-level fueling facility in the U.S., has the capacity to fuel and wash up to 300 vehicles per hour and 7,200 per day.