Parking Structures

Architect, Park Thyself

A review by Ian Baldwin of the National Building Museum's House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage -- The Design Observation Group

ART: A drive through garage design past and present -- The Washington Times

The End of Car Culture -- ArchDaily

Must Parking Garages Be So Ugly? -- ArchDaily

The World’s 10 Coolest Car Parks -- ArchDaily

These are some parking structures around the world:

Source: UMass Dartmouth

Temple Street Parking Garage, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, 1963 design by Paul Rudolph

The parking garage is a peculiar twentieth-century phenomenon. The one in New Haven comes from the design of throughways. Most parking garages are merely skeletal structures which didn't get any walls. They are just office building structures with the glass left out. I wanted to make a building which said it dealt with cars and movement. I wanted there to be no doubt that this is a parking garage.  -- Cook, John Wesley. Conversations with Architects

Source: Te-Ming Chang

Post Office Square Garage, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 1991 designed by Halvoson Design Partnership

1.7-acre park atop an underground parking garage.

"Park above, park below" is the slogan at Boston's Post Office Square. A public-private partnership financed the design and construction of the park and garage, while fees from the garage are targeted to repay capital costs and ongoing maintenance. -- PPS

See more from architect's web site.

Source: Machado and Silvetti Associates

Parking structure, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 1991 designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates

In accordance with the garden-like character of the surroundings, the three floors of the structure above the brick wall are wrapped by a double lattice screen made of bronze.

The Princeton parking garage won a 1993 National Honor Award from the National Association of the American Institute of Architects.  -- architect's web site

Source: perkinswill.com

Skybridge, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2003 designed by Perkins + Will

There are other urban design plusses, most notably the way Johnson relates Skybridge to the low-rise buildings to the west. He wisely pushes the tower along the expressway so it doesn't crowd Greektown. At the same time, he extends a six-story base westward to Halsted Street, with a colorful glass curtain wall that masks its parking garage and a ground-level Dominick's that brings the street the right touch of human scale. -- Chicago Tribune

More from architect's web site.

Source: arquitectonica.com

Bentley Bay Condominium, Miami, Florida, USA designed by Arquitectonica

At the Bentley Bay condo, they master the art of Greenwrapping- taking something completely offensive and making it just a little bit less so by adding a few green elements.  -- treehugger

Source: arquitectonica.com

Ballet Valet Parking Garage & Retail Center, Miami Beach, Florida, USA designed by Arquitectonica

Source: surfsantamonica.com

Civic Center, Santa Monica, California, USA, 2007 designed by Moore Ruble Yudell

architects & planners

The six-story, 882-space structure at the Civic Center features photovoltaic roof panels, a storm drain water treatment system, recycled construction materials and energy efficient mechanical systems.

City officials hope the 290,000-square-foot-garage will become the nation’s first parking structure certified by the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).  -- The Look Out News

 Another post from Jetson Green

Source: Christian Richters archdaily.com

Parking Garage, Industriestraße, Coesfeld, Germany, 2007 designed by Birk Heilmeyer und Frenzel Architekten

The form of the two parts of structure results from the system of two parking ramps. The two identical, mirror-symmetric building parts complement each other on the inside [circular driving] as well as on the outside. Both building parts are enclosed over the entire length and width with square-shaped timber. The cladding grid is coordinated with the construction grid. The timber elements are 4 x 10 cm, the gap between them is 9 cm; thus the opening portion of the front is 70%. The car park’s cladding appears open or closed depending on the view angle. -- ArchDaily

Source: Scott McDonald archdaily.com

Car Park One, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, 2008 designed by Elliott + Associates Architects

The building covers a city block and stores 791 vehicles. With such a large scale the architects skinned the structure in 3/8” wide stainless steel mesh. The 25% open weave allows air movement as required by code and responds to the light in Oklahoma. With 300 sun-days per year the reflective quality of the mesh allows the surface to “dissolve” into the sky from reflections. The edges disappear and the surface provides a daily report on the ever-changing weather. At sunset the western elevation captures the magic moment when the yellow becomes orange and finally becomes purple just before black.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Rafael Palomo archdaily.com

Carpark Erika, Malmö, Sweden, 2008 designed by Metro Arkitekter AB, Urban Skogmar (HL), Rafael Palomo and Fredrik Nilsson

White glass boxes surround the parking garage and break down the scale of a large monofunctional volume. By day, the white glass sparkles but at night the building’s colored ceilings mean that the building changes character completely.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Antoine Huot archdaily.com

Parking Sucy En Brie, Sucy-en-Brie, France, 2008 designed by Agence Carbonnet Architectes + IOSIS Infrastructure

the parking is part of an overall process of upgrading and urban improvement. The project consists of eight half-levels of continuous ramp with a capacity of 491 parking spaces (including 11 spaces for the disabled and 2 for electric cars).

The facades show the slope of the ramp with a smooth steel. Depending on their orientation and the surrounding environment, the facades are treated differently. Along the track the front is opaque, while the other side it is processed into a set of polycarbonate panels and white polished concrete. The south facade is vegetated. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

Mountain Dwellings, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2008 designed by BIG with JDS

The gigantic parking area contains 480 parking spots and a sloping elevator that moves along the mountain’s inner walls. In some places the ceiling height is up to 16 meters which gives the impression of a cathedral-like space. The north and west facades are covered by perforated aluminium plates, which let in air and light to the parking area. -- ArchDaily

Source: Constantin Meyer archdaily.com

Neubau Parkhaus SMA, Niestetal, Germany, 2008 designed by HHS Planer + Architekten AG

The car park’s three open façades have a curtain-wall made of expanded metal mesh which extends from the ground to the lower edge of the solar power roof structure. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

LAPD MTD + MSP, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2009 designed by John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects

Holding all these elements together is an undulating, vertically-banded, stainless steel mesh screen which stretches across the full width of the 300-foot long structure. Serving as an ever-changing veil for the structure, it performs on a number of levels. Painted in a pattern of leaf-like forms, it creates a dynamic, joyful image that suggests the “greening” of Los Angeles, while also acknowledging the district’s reputation as one of the most active centers of art galleries in the City. The metal mesh also provides a high level of security for the LAPD employees in a manner that allows the structure to be naturally ventilated. Lit up at night, it creates a warm, friendly glow for the neighborhood.  -- ArchDaily

 Source: Tim Griffith archdaily.com

Mission Bay Block 27 Parking Structure, San Francisco, California, USA, 2009 designed by WRNS Studio

Located within San Francisco’s Mission Bay redevelopment zone, this new seven story elevated parking structure serves adjacent laboratories and offices with 1,420 spaces. The north and east façades, which border a public plaza, are clad in perforated aluminum panels whose pixelation evokes California’s redwood forests and nearby foliage. Subtle folds in the panels further disrupt the monolithic surface and engage the pedestrian scale of the plaza below. The south façade, adjacent to a heavily trafficked street, incorporates a steeply canted plaster wall that dramatically registers sunlight and shadow over the course of the day.  -- ArchDaily

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Source: Aedas archdaily.com

18 Kowloon East, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, China, 2010 designed by Aedas

With ‘green’ as the theme, the final design introduces extensive planting at the car park floors located at the lower portion of the tower. In addition to the visually greening effect to the neighborhood, the planting also filters the air and improves the air quality within the car park. Hopefully, the suspended particulates in the air can be reduced and the design is able to provide car park users a more pleasant experience.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Luc Boegly archdaily.com

Parking in Soissons, Soissons, France, 2010 designed by Jacques Ferrier Architectures

With its concrete structure, galvanised steel framework and timber cladding, the car park takes the form of a contemporary yet highly restrained urban infrastructure. 

a clearly affirmed structure overlaid by a pleated openwork timber envelope that lightly and delicately clads the entire car park. On each level, a slit opens up in the envelope to provide views from the inside over the urban landscape of the town. -- ArchDaily

Source: arthitectural.com

Santa Monica Municipal Parking Garage, Santa Monica, California, USA, 2010 designed by Brooks + Scarpa (formerly Pugh + Scarpa)

Brooks + Scarpa was commissioned to design improvements to the Frank Gehry design garages at Santa Monica Place Mall as well as eight other city owned parking structures surrounding the popular 3rd Street Promenade of Santa Monica.

The main feature of the structure is the building façade, which was designed from a single mass-produced and repeatable panel composed of a series of cement board slats formed into screens resembling lumber pallets. Each panel is approximately 10 feet by 16 feet and arranged in a slightly different position or orientation relative to each adjacent panel.  -- Arthitectural.com

Ball-Nogues Studio designed the Cradle sculpture in Santa Monica, California. -- Contemprist

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Source: worldarchitecturenews.com

Greenway Self Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2010 designed by HOK

The 24-hour public parking garage in the River North neighbourhood of the Windy City features wind turbines, rain water collection systems and electric car plug-in stations. A way-finding system has also been implemented at each elevator lobby to educate Chicagoans on how to live more sustainably and better protect the environment.

Standing at 11 stories high, the energy-efficient garage is currently pursuing LEED Certification from the US Green Building Council. Shimmering down the southwest corner of the garage is a 12-paired array of vertical turbines, clearly visible to the passer-by, to harvest the wind to power the exterior wall lighting of the facility. A reversible meter has also been installed to measure and return power to the city’s grid throughout the year. -- World Architecture News.com

Source: Nelson Garrido archdaily.com

1111 Lincoln Road, Miami, Florida, USA, 2010 designed by Herzog & de Meuron

with raw structures providing shade, while containing smaller enclosing sub-elements. The slabs stand over a set of irregular columns, giving a sense of a precarious equilibrium. These columns also cast different shadows, giving more character to the facade. -- ArchDaily

Read an article from Architectural Record
Another article from New York Times
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Read a comment from ArchitectureBoston

Source: fastcodesign.com

Why Shouldn’t A Parking Garage Be A Graphic Funhouse?

A car park in Sydney’s Darling Point decked out in a colorful geometric mural by Craig Redman and Karl Maier, known as Craig & Karl.  -- Co.Design

Source: David Frutos archdaily.com

Parking Avenida Libertad, Avenida de la Libertad, Murcia, Spain, 2010 designed by Clavel Arquitectos

Light as an essential material. Considering the powerful and sculptural texture of the diaphragm walls, we chose not to cover them, but to flood them with energy-efficient coloured light that gave them an unusual look. Enhancing, instead of hiding. This choice doesn’t only help the user to find his way, but it also avoids covering materials, such as paintings or brick, that get quickly worn out because of gas emissions from the cars. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

NYC Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York City, New York, USA, 2011

One of the New York City’s most forgettable buildings has been transformed into a model of modern technology. The Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT), located in midtown Manhattan between 40th and 42nd street, now boasts the world’s largest transparent media façade completed by GKD Metal Fabrics which effectively covers the building’s outdated steel façade. -- ArchDaily

Source: Elenberg Fraser

A’Beckett Tower, Melbourne, Australia, 2011 designed by Elenberg Fraser

The transition from podium to tower is treated non-traditionally, with a thin veneer of apartments surrounding the carpark, which is accessed via elevators for cars, liberating the street front from ramps. A’Beckett Tower’s carpark is covered with a perforated screen, featuring a design by John Warwicker of tomato.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Jonathan Hillyer archdaily.com

Green Square Parking Deck, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, 2011 designed by Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee

Urbanistically, the parking deck is positioned to reinforce the street edges and to comply with the City of Raleigh’s “Livable Streets” initiative. The parking deck is conceived as a concrete frame wrapped in an enclosure screen of vertical fins. These fins, or solar blades, allow air and light to penetrate the deck, while also offering a dynamic façade to pedestrians and passengers in passing vehicles. The fins are thought of as a curtain, in some cases being pulled back where openings are desired. The project incorporates several sustainable design strategies. A photovoltaic array is located above the top parking level, supplying collected solar energy directly into the power grid. Enough energy is collected to power 3000 homes per year. Rainwater is collected and stored in a cistern to be used for irrigation of the State Capitol grounds. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jeroen Musch archdaily.com

Gnome Parking Garage, Straat van Florida, Almere, The Netherlands, 2011 designed by Mei Architecten

The special facade of the garage contains natural elements, like integrated plant containers with specific plants based on the orientation of the facade. By using a vacuum forming technique – commonly utilized in the automotive industry  – the perforated facade panels show characteristic images of the province of Flevoland like birds, windmills, garden gnomes and bird houses. The perforation of the sheeting supplies natural ventilation in the parking garage and creates an open atmosphere, especially at night. -- ArchDaily

Source: Tim Griffith archdaily.com

UCSF Mission Bay Parking Structure, San Francisco, California, USA, 2012 designed by WRNS Studio

The upper levels of the structure are shrouded with a custom anodized aluminum louver system in warm earth tones. The vertical louvers change orientation from panel to panel, creating a quilted pattern through play with light and shadow. The varied spacing and orientation facilitate natural ventilation and control light spill from the garage at night in order to reduce the visual impact on neighbors. The louvers are also shaped to bounce daylight into the structure. Vertical fins define two-story view apertures and modulate between the pedestrian scale and the garage’s large volume. -- ArchDaily

Source: QLAB archdaily.com

Wulai Parking Structure, New Taipei City, Taiwan, 2012 designed by QLAB

We deployed the techniques of parametric design when generating this gentle curve that moves three dimensionally in space. The end result requires 3000 pieces of aluminum extrusion that were prefabricated in shop, shipped and assembled on site. 

This louver façade also help block the western sun from hot steaming summer heat in Taiwan.  The temperature difference between indoor and outdoor can be as high as 5 degrees in Celsius in any given summer days. -- ArchDaily

Source: openbuildings.com

Parking Garage of the Leipzig Zoo, Leipzig, Germany designed by HPP Hentrich-Petschnigg & Partner GmbH + Co. KG

The parking garage was supposed to express a unity with the adjacent zoo grounds. As a result, the designers sought with bamboo a façade material that would both make reference to the exotic world of the zoo and lend the structure a soft and haptic impression. -- Open Buildings

Source: Thomas Lewandowski archdaily.com

Muliy-storey Car Park, Aachen, Germany,2012 designed by JSWD Architekten

The chosen construction method will feature an efficient steel, steel- reinforced concrete composite construction system design that overspans the individual levels without the need for supports. The design of the car park facade is based on the central theme of an “artificial green facade”. This concept is realized by means of an open facade made up of aluminium profiles that are arranged irregularly on two displaced levels. -- ArchDaily

Source: Günter Richard Wett archdaily.com

Festspielgarage Erl, Erl, Austria, 2012 designed by Kleboth Lindinger Dollnig

Due to the geometry of the terrain the parking garage does not need any ramps. Each parking level has a separate entry and exit.

Individual levels can be opened and closed depending on the demand. The building defines by its presence the transition between landscape (green meadows where cows graze) and the village of Erl. Seen from the south it is very carefully embedded in the landscape, from the north, however, it is clearly visible. Here, the garage becomes a stage for the festival guests: When exiting the garage, visitors enter a gallery overlooking the Inn valley. The festival houses come only gradually into view. -- ArchDaily

Source: Ronald Tilleman archdaily.com

P+R De Uithof, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2013 designed by KCAP Architects & Planners + studioSK

The building presents a distinguished shape with identity and character created by its bent contour, sloping floors and selective levels that open up to the views. The open and transparent layout contributes to its quality as a public building and guarantees a clear orientation and a safe atmosphere for the users. -- ArchDaily

Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre archdaily.com

Parking Building, Leioa, Biscay, Spain, 2013 designed by JAAM sociedad de arquitectura

The volume is in a rectangular parcel with two overlapping orders, the first is an opaque plinth with human scale, a big bench in the buses dock, with occasional openings for access of vehicles and people. The upper order, with an aluminum façace, is a large prism which cantilevers above the bus dock creating a waiting shelter with a translucent blue skylight. -- ArchDaily

Source: Studio di Architettura archdaily.com

Parking Garage Project, East Hanover, New Jersey, USA, 2013 designed by Studio di Architettura

To avoid an unpleasant impact of the headlights on the neighbourhood, which is partially residential, the metal rails protecting the cars from falling off were provided with louvers shutting off the light; and to give the garage a friendly presence a bamboo screen was applied to the whole building. The poles were coated to make them fire-proof and distrubuted in such a way that the natural air circulation is sufficient and that at the same time they create a consistent visual screen. The warm colour and the natural material contribute to give the building a positive, non mechanical aura. -- ArchDaily

Source: Serge Hoeltschi archdaily.com

Parking Structure Art Facade, Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital, 720 Eskenazi Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA, 2014 designed by Urbana

The effect of a field of 7,000 angled metal panels in conjunction with an articulated east/west color strategy creates a dynamic façade system that offers observers a unique visual experience depending on their vantage point and the pace at which they are moving through the site. -- ArchDaily

Complexity Via Simplicity: Urbana’s Parking Structure Facade -- ArchDaily

Source: Michielli + Wyetzner Architects

Delancey and Essex Municipal Parking Garage, New York City, New York, USA designed by  Michielli + Wyetzner Architects

a two layer 1/14″ diameter cable weave like pattern to create a three-dimensional open facade for the second to fifth floors of the garage.

The front layer folds in and out from the flat-planed one behind, creating large-scale moiré patterns that move across the building as the viewer walks or drives up the street. The cable façade replaces a grill-like concrete covering that had begun to deteriorate.  -- ArchDaily

Read an article about New York City's Design and Construction Excellence (D+CE) program. 

Source: Sergio Pirrone archdaily.com

White Boat, Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea designed by IROJE KHM Architects

In the night, this moving machine looks like huge, urban installation of pop art which shows interesting car parade of moving and flying……. -- ArchDaily