OK, I think most of us have unreasonable expectations of parking garages. I just did an exhaustive image search on
parking garages looking for an attractive one. Stand-alone garages are typically spartan in design and
butt ugly! Unless they are the base of an expensive condo tower, they usually are designed more for function than for their visual appeal. I could not find any examples with ground floor retail on a stand alone garage.
I found two examples that may be rehabilitation possibilities for the garage mahal... The first uses some bold geometric painting
[IMG]
[/IMG]
The second uses some nice big trees to hide the ugly garage
[IMG]
[/IMG]
I like the idea of opening up a design competition to architects and artists on how to beautify the beast. Another idea I had concerning how the garage cuts off the surrounding areas from one another is to add criss-cross passageways through the bottom floor with pedestrian crosswalks and lights inside so folks don't get run over.
A challenge: find an example of an attractive stand alone garage with perimeter retail or other "non-garage" use.
