Cars sit in one of the two Holliston Avenue parking lots on campus that were recently closed. For a few weeks, a shuttle will take commuters to their cars at CIT².

Rain spells delays

A parking shortfall resulting from the February 22 closure of two campus lots on Holliston Avenue prompted the Institute to open to Caltech staff members a parking lot at CIT², the former St. Luke Medical Center in northeast Pasadena, and ferry them to the campus and back.

This measure to ease the parking squeeze is being made in the midst of several ongoing campus construction projects. These include the finishing touches on the new subterranean parking structure south of California Boulevard and prep work for modular housing units on the two Holliston lots in advance of the renovation of student housing. The units will be used as temporary housing while the dormitories, known as the South Houses, are modernized.

“It’s a temporary thing. It’s pending the opening of the new parking structure,” says Gregg Henderson, chief of campus security and parking services about parking at St. Luke. “We cannot delay any of the commitments that have been made concerning the modular structures.” Preparations must be made before the arrival of 16 portable housing units that will form an enclosed village on the lots and on the lawn north of Avery House.

The two lots just east of Avery House are primarily used during the workweek. A shuttle service has been established between St. Luke and the campus. “We are anticipating using two shuttles and we’re looking at 25-passenger vans,” Henderson says. “There’ll be one pick-up and drop-off point at the corner of Holliston and San Pasqual Street, by the JPL shuttle stop.”
The shuttles are scheduled to run every 15 minutes from 4:45 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., and from 1:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the afternoon. This parking arrangement is expected to last between four and six weeks.

All aboard! Staff members board a bus at CIT² to head to Caltech.

“The loss on campus is 125 spaces and that is how many will be available at CIT² on a first-come, first-served basis.” Television and film crews, who bring their own parking needs along with their cameras, use the old St. Luke hospital site extensively. Doctor’s offices on the premises also provide parking to employees and patients.

“The concept is that every vehicle that gets parked up there creates one space here,” he adds. “A lot of discussion went into what we’re going to do and we are working it as best as we can.”

The situation has come to this point, Henderson says, because of an unusually wet winter that contributed to delays on the underground structure. The top and sides of the three-level structure need to be filled in with dirt, which turns to mud when wet. Cameras, an elevator, and emergency phones are also being installed, and the structure—with its 700 pristine parking spaces—is expected to open at the end of March, weather permitting.

As for the work on the temporary student housing, water and sewage lines need to be installed, as do data cables and electrical infrastructure. Lighting will be added or moved, and landscaping will begin. With the work scheduled to begin right after Presidents Day, the modular units are expected in April.

“The rehab on the South Houses is anticipated to last 14 months,” Henderson says, adding that it will begin at the end of Commencement.
Other measures have been taken to mitigate the loss of the parking lots. Of the 35 visitor spaces on the top level of the Holliston parking structure, 25 have been returned to the commuter pool.

Henderson reports that his office recently asked the city to alter the Pasadena ARTS bus route 10 so that it travels on Del Mar Boulevard, making it easier for Caltech commuters to catch the Metro Gold Line light-rail system.

“The new route began on the 20th,” he says. “It’s another method of getting people to work without bringing their cars.”

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