Austin | Parking Podiums
 

The perfect place to park your podium rantings

Good idea. But something tells me that I'll be moving a lot of podium discussions from other threads to this one. :)

There is no reason for these 10 to 20 story parking podiums to use ramps where better to design them like a Carvana garage. This way don’t have to drive in circles to find a spot and can store more vehicles.

https://www.roboticparking.com

I agree. Best case would be to make buildings with 16' floors so one level of car parking stacks could be placed on each floor, resulting in 8' tall spaces for cars (including structure). And of course the automated elevator system to place the cars, with two parallel elevator systems so cars could easily placed in slots with no reshuffling necessary. That way if the purpose of the garage were to ever change, the floors would already be perfect height for offices (or luxury apartments) and the elevator slots could easily be replaced with floors. Elevators for humans would already exist.

No reason except the biggest factor in developing. $$$$$$$$

The money is most definitely the biggest reason robotic parking isnt used more frequently. I also wonder how the systems would work during the morning and afternoon rush of people with the same 8-5 schedule trying to park and retrieve their cars at the same time. The video from the site posted above seems to be sped up, I would imagine those usually operate pretty slowly. Last thought is you typically see smaller cars in these systems. How will the guys with office jobs, but trying to be cowboys/roughnecks in there lifted pickup trucks fit onto those systems?
I am all for something different than the current obnoxious parking podiums, but there are definitely several reasons why the conventional parking garages are used. And again, cant be stated enough, the number one reason is money.

All factors considered, circular ramps are the best option. Here's the Riverbend Garage in San Antonio. I've parked in this garage many times, including in my father's 1983 Oldsmobile Delta 88 sedan (a big car). Yes, the ramps taking up some space, but they leave the rest of the garage with flat floors. Also, you can park on the 8th floor and exit the garage in about 90 seconds as long as there's no traffic in front of you. In a sloped garage where you have to drive through every floor to get to and from the top, it would take you much longer even with no traffic. With the curved ramps, even in rush hour, the people on top can enter the ramp and be on their way instead of having to be last in line because of the people on the lower floors.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ri...1!4d-98.488532

Many garages in Asia have circular ramps. They're kinda fun...

The Line Hotel parking garage has a circular ramp. It's pretty efficient.

Here's a new Austin example of parking garage repurposing. Part of one level of the Quincy will be turned into a dog park per a permit filed today:

https://abc.austintexas.gov/public-s...pertyrsn=93290

I don't know if 10-story Dog Parks are viable as a total solution although dogs would like it.

That is awesome! They must have realized they over built the parking and under built the dog park.

P6 rooftop lounge bar at The Line hotel was a parking floor once upon a time.

https://www.venuereport.com/blog/aus...arking-garage/

If the city can have stupid rules for things like 60' height limits on the eastside, CVCs (especially near 35), and a whole host of other nonsensical ones, then they sure as hell can implement one for flat floors of parking podiums. Then at least they stand a fighting chance of being repurposed in the future, however distant that might be.

The Capitol Tower is mostly all parking.

https://i.ibb.co/QprPSpF/Capitol-Tower-1200.jpg

Who knew??

I disapprove of this building. Even during the 80s - 90s building boom, this one stood out as an example of the architectural crap we were dished. As is the horrible pos at the end of Congress on the right, can't remember the name of that building, These are two of the worst buildings in downtown.

If anybody has ever been in the Mueller Aldrich garage (Alamo Drafthouse), it is a really good example of how to design a garage that could be converted to other uses. The floor plates are all flat, with a single speed ramp at the back, and the floor heights are really tall. The only problem is it is now completely wrapped with other uses. The only place for windows would be on the alley at the back of Alamo, and above the entrances. I guess the ramps could be demolished to form a lightwell, but there would not be any views. Maybe it could be Class B office or some kind of maker space or something?

It's hard to use a suburban garage as an example when most of us are talking about garages in the CBD which have much much smaller footprints.

I believe the parking garage for the medical office building at the new UT Dell Medical Center also has flat floor plates except for the fairly wide two way ramp portion which is only on one side of the structure.

Didn't the city pass an ordinance in the last few years saying that all garages have to be future proofed for multiple uses? If not passed, at least it was talked about.

I've always thought parking garages could be converted into great hydroponic farming. Especially for the sticky icky.

Remember in the Aughts when this mostly-parking-garage-with-a-little-bit-of-offices-on-top was going to get a giant spoiler. It was supposed to light up too.

https://giphy.com/embed/l2YWoFYxakX3Em4w0