The problem of the urban parking garage

A reader asked about icky parking garages and don't they just inherently destroy things.

(I've posted on this before, I think, but it is buried way back in the archives. But you might want to check "The myth of the "decent architect" and Marina City 's Circular Parking Garage.)

And he's right to ask.

Here's an example of a "bad" parking structure:

It presents merely a blank wall to the street.

Here's an example of the same basic thing parking structure (though this one has apartments on the upper floors) by having activities (shops) at street level:

See? We transform a parking structure's impact on the street by forcing it to conform to the three rules. (Btw, the shops need not be more than 30 feet or so deep to be effective and marketable so there is trivial impact on the economics.)

If you look around any major city you can see example of both models: the "bad" parking garage with blank walls or cars visble at the sidewalk but you can also find examples (once you start looking you'll see) of the street-friendly ones with activity at the sidewalk level.

UPDATE: (If anyone has better examples than the ones I have shown here -- I am intensely busy this morning and can't find my Boulder CO pictures -- please help me out. Thanks.)

Comments

[Jay Porter]

Picture is kind of small, but here's how the new garages in San Diego are being built with a friendly street level:

http://www.sandiegomag.com/issues/june01/eyeon3.shtml

[Carl Jahnes]

David, yes, that good example picture definitely needs help. What can you do there except quickly walk by what look like empty tenant spaces? This looks like the drive down the west side of Manhattan to the Lincoln Tunnel. Quite pedestrian unfriendly!

[Nicholas Weininger]

The "new" garage at Grand and Victoria Avenues in St. Paul, MN-- in the area known as "Victoria Crossing"-- is an example of your "good" garage type, I think. The area really, really needed more parking, and the new garage provided it plus a bunch more street-level retail space which was also badly needed. A quick Google unfortunately gives no photos.

St. Paul, BTW, is in general a great example of a very low-key, family-friendly, not-very-high-density city full of affordable single-family homes that is nevertheless very Three Rules-compliant. Don't know why, though.