Second life of great American parking garages: Exploring the potential of adaptive reuse of urban parking structures in the American cities

Abstract

[EN] The structure of American cities has been greatly influenced and transformed with the onset of the car culture and its ever evolving impacts to the everyday life of American people. The early 1900’s experienced a noticeable growth in the demand and need for automobiles resulting in the increasing need for parking spaces in the city. However, better public transit options in downtown cores; growing public awareness of reducing automobile dependence in order to address issues of sustainability; advancement in autonomous vehicles and demand-based traffic management, all are making existing parking garages obsolete and useless. The era of designing cities as if car access alone was sufficient appears to have ended. An opportunity lies where the existing underused parking garages can be repurposed into residential, entertainment, or work spaces. This paper examines three past projects that have converted existing urban parking garages to other uses around the world. It then analyzes their design and construction approaches and discusses the implications of this type of conversion to the urban form of the areas surrounding these projects.