Quote:
Originally Posted by corey
This my first time posting to the forum, but I have been a reader for a long time. I see a lot of complaints about parking podiums on highrises. I actually prefer parking podiums on residential highrises because they automatically make the building several storeys taller so that the apartments or condos start on the say 6-7 floor instead of the 3rd floor. It seems to me a podium is more "green" than a several story underground parking garage. This is because all of the fossil fuel used to excavate the deeper hole and all of the soil that must be relocated. Is there a precedent for a building like the Confluence to switch over to condominiums before it is completed? I assume this is unlikely since it was financed as an apartment building.
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Going taller also requires more structure per square foot. The green question would depend on a bunch of factors per location, but I don't see an obvious answer.
Mostly I hate podiums because they create blank street walls, vs. ones that have people living right above ground level. Also, as a highrise (lower part) resident I value the ability to use stairs instead of the elevator. Third, podium buildings tend to look awkward from a distance too, especially because they're often designed as one building on top of another instead of an integrated whole.
Of course (repeating myself) the amount of parking plays a big role. A 150-space garage can be less obtrusive than a 300-space one. With less parking, you can fit more housing units on a smaller site.
You can also put housing or commercial uses on part of the podium, though that probably means a taller podium since you're taking more space.
Of course podiums mostly exist because they're cheaper than going below-grade, with a lot of variation depending on adjacent buildings, soils, etc.
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