Tag: parking-garages | ArchDaily

How Automated Parking Systems Reclaim Urban Space

Kiana Buchberger — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 06:45:00 +0000

Cities are slowly reshaping themselves. Walkable streets, bike-friendly networks, and mixed-use neighborhoods are becoming planning priorities as climate goals, changing lifestyles, and remote work reshape daily patterns. Yet even as these people-centered ideas gain momentum, most cities still rely heavily on private cars, creating a tension between the urban futures we're designing for and the mobility habits that persist today.

Rethinking the Flat Datum: Designing Space with Incline and Intent

Jonathan Yeung — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Historically, architecture and the built environment have insisted on creating flat, hard surfaces. In earlier eras, walking without paved ground meant mud-caked shoes, uneven footing, tripping hazards, standing water after rain, and high maintenance. Hence, as we shaped cities, we prioritized a smooth, continuous, solid horizontal datum. The benefits are real: easier walking, simpler cleaning, and straightforward programming—furniture, equipment, and partitions all prefer a level base. This universal preference for building on flat ground remains the norm and, for many practical reasons, will likely continue to be.

Parking Garages: Antithesis or Opportunity for 21st-Century Urbanism?

Camilla Ghisleni — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 07:30:00 +0000

In an era of people-centered urban planning, 15-minute cities, “eyes on the street,” and active public spaces, parking garages are often seen as the antithesis of contemporary urban ideals. But that was not always the case. If today they challenge architects and planners to reinvent them in pursuit of more sustainable mobility and more human cities, in the past they stood as witnesses to a radical transformation in how we move, inhabit, and perceive urban space. Once symbols of modernity, parking garages embodied the height of an age when the automobile was seen as a driving force of progress. This shift in meaning reveals them as much more than utilitarian structures — they are powerful reflections of the evolution of urbanism, technology, and social habits over the past two centuries.

Why Does America Provide More Space for Storing Cars Than Housing People?

Michael J. Crosbie — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Exploring the History and Future of Parking Garage Designs

Kaley Overstreet — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 05:30:00 +0000

For every car that drives on the road, we need to find a place to put it- but are parking garages the answer? Parking garages are often seen as the antithesis of people-friendly urban planning. Large gray boxes are used solely to store cars that make temporary visits and seem like a poor use of space, especially in cities where land comes at a premium. Because of these garages, urban cores have quickly been transformed into parking districts, where vehicle storage dominates the aesthetic of a business district. Building codes only contribute to the problem, where the number of spaces is passed down as a mandate, even spreading out into suburban areas. Parking garages are everywhere- flanking shopping malls, connecting to residential towers, and surrounding sporting venues.

Curb Appeal: Choosing the Right Residential Garage Door

Olivia Bartolini — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 06:45:00 +0000

In residential architecture, the garage is a space that is mainly used for storage and car parking. Although the garage door is usually not a very thought-out part of the design of a residential project, it often occupies a large part of the front elevation of a house, and can play an important role in its general curb appeal.

From Empty Grids to Interactive Playgrounds: Parking Lots and their Evolving Identities

Dima Stouhi — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 04:00:00 +0000

In theory, parking spaces serve only one function: park a car safely until it is used again, and in terms of design, car garages are flexible and straightforward, requiring minimal design interventions. However, parking spaces nowadays are no longer considered one-function buildings. The emptier the space, the more potential it has to integrate additional functions. Architects and urban planners have redefined traditional parking lots, adding recreational and commercial facilities to the structure. Instead of a typical structured grid plan with yellow and white markings on the floor, we are now seeing inviting structures that incorporate green facades and rooftop playgrounds, car washes, cafeterias, and work/study zones.

The New Cool in Parking Garage Design

Megan Schires — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 04:30:00 +0000

Parking garages present an aesthetic challenge to even the most creative design minds. Their vast scale and monotonous appearance are necessitated by function, but result in the difficulty of making the garages visually interesting instead of simply overbearing. Cladding a parking garage in a unique material can add visual interest and texture to achieve a more human connection. However, this in turn creates concerns about still bringing light and air into the garage.

Transforming the Parking Garages of Today Into the Housing of Tomorrow

Kaley Overstreet — Sun, 05 Aug 2018 14:00:00 +0000

Are you in the market for a new home? If so, you may want to consider looking at a former parking garage, because they just might be the next place where developers are looking to build. In the United States alone, there are more than 500 million parking spots for 326 million citizens, covering approximately 2,500 square miles of land. Despite the push for a "car-free" future, more of these structures keep springing up across the country. If cities are building parking garages to support the need for the cars of today, how might we rethink their design so they can outfit the autonomous vehicle ambitions of tomorrow?