#parking decks

[atlurbanist]

Giant parking decks in Midtown Atlanta are not required by zoning, but they should also not be allowed

The parking deck for the new Ten Twenty office tower is daunting. Over 1,000 spaces.

People will rationalize these decks left and right, arguing that the parking ratio per 1,000 square feet is "not that high" or that this outcome is better than office towers being built further from transit hubs.

Bottom line: thousands more car trips being added to Midtown streets = a bad thing.

No parking is required by the city on this property, but too much is being allowed.

Yes, you read that correctly -- there is no parking minimum for a property this close to MARTA rail, so all the spaces being built in these new towers are decided upon by developers & lenders. Zero spaces are required by the zoning district.

We do have maximum-allowed limits, but they're too high, in my opinion.

I believe the land near our precious investments in rail should be reserved for great urbanism, featuring very progressive developments that are designed for low car usage, surrounded by pedestrian-oriented streets that allow cars without being dominated by them.

The era of drive-to urbanism in the city center should have ended years ago. We're wasting our potential for greatness while clinging to a 20th century system of sprawl-supportive car commuting. Please let's stop this madness and build the city in a more sustainable way.

[dreamproxyaesthetics]

Late Night Raleigh, NC

[3xhaustpipe]

objectum people how do we feel about giant concrete parking decks

[ncdweller]

Too much fun -almost!

Along with cool interactive sculptures (see earlier post on non-interactive sculpture/mosquito breeder, cough, Noguchi, cough) on the Renzo Piano Piazza, or whatever it’s called - the Woodruff Arts Center is keen on non-descriptive proper nouns to describe geographical locations (makes exploring the High Museum extra fun) - we now have cool things at the adjacent transit station (did I just write that?).

Anyway, it’s my favorite quasi-public (okay, it’s really private) space in Atlanta, as people actually use it. As long as you don’t look/act too strange/poor (there is an art school here, so that is a high bar), you’ll be left alone.

n.b. carry a notebook and pen/pencil - you’ll be fine.

Across the street is the all but ignored (until now?) by the Woodruff Arts Center, similarly named Arts Center MARTA Station.

Until now there was a huge dichotomy between the Arts Center, and the Arts Center MARTA Station. The hoi-polloi frequent the Arts Center, the riff-raff frequent the Arts Center Station. That’s been the conventional wisdom until very very recently (and I’m being hopeful). So while the RP Piazza has been festooned with live music, dance, interactive sculpture, a restaurant/bar, coffee shop soon, etc, the station has been a barren dystopian entity.

Note the placement of the parking deck entrance-exit facing the station, spewing angry hornets/vehicles over the crosswalk between the station and the arts stuff. Almost like they designed it to kill/maim MARTA riders.

Though the High Museum has been enticing prospective members with free parking passes to the deck, whilst ignoring the transit option, as recently as last year, I’m thinking things may be changing. Perhaps the fear of one patron running over another patron is becoming more real. I dunno.

So now we have colorful chairs, cool, very cool, bike racks, a functioning funky piano, actual art on the windows over the bus loop, and festive lights. Well, it looks like the station is getting a much deserved acknowledgement that it belongs not only in name, but spirit, with the Woodruff Arts Center.

Now if they can ban right turning cars out of the deck before someone is run over, it will be a wonderful thing.

[peculiardragoness-blog]

Random Dragon Thought

Parking decks remind me of caves.  They’re so large, roomy, and echo-y! If I had to make an estimate, I’d say the parking deck I was in could hold ten large dragons per level. Yay parking decks!

[psyche-delo]

[atlurbanist]

Could parking decks become platforms for new housing?

This is such a cool project. The Atlanta location of SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) has completed three prototype housing units inside a parking deck in its Midtown campus and students are set to move in this month. Above is the view from one of the micro apartments, as posted on the SCAD Twitter account.

An article on Next City has the info. Here's a quote:

The 135-square-foot micro-apartments each take up one parking space, with an additional space for use as a “terrace” (seriously!), and were designed by 75 current SCAD students, 37 alumni and 12 professors. A dozen students will move into the apartments on April 15.

Are parking decks an untapped platform for new housing? It's an interesting concept. Studies show that parking decks nationwide are operating at half capacity, and many are centrally located in cities. It's an idea with big potential for adaptively reusing car infrastructure for housing people in urban areas.

The drawback is zoning laws that would need to be changed to allow for permanent residences in current parking decks. These prototypes at SCAD were able to receive special zoning permits, but they won't last long:

They aren’t, at least for now, permanent dwellings: The students will only shack up in SCADpads until June, and even then each will only stay there for a week at a time.

Nonetheless, it's exciting to see this kind of innovation happening in Atlanta. If it gains traction and zoning hurdles can be overcome, I can suggest a buttload of often-empty parking decks downtown that could stand to be adaptively reused.