The world has a parking lot problem. While no one is certain how many parking spaces exist, estimates for the United States alone run from 105 million to 2 billion. And with electric vehicles (EVs), ridesharing services and the promise of autonomous vehicles already changing how people get around, many parking garages and lots sit vacant, wasting valuable space.
In the midst of that transportation evolution, project teams are rethinking parking facilities by delivering next-gen infrastructure and looking ahead to how those spaces could be transformed as mobility needs shift.
In October, Fastned and Tesla opened Germany’s largest fast-charging lot for EVs. That same month, Mercedes-Benz and Bosch unveiled plans to partner with parking-garage operator Apcoa to deploy an automated valet parking system at Germany’s Stuttgart Airport. And in The Hague, the Netherlands, a project team led by designers Silo and Studio Marsman with contractor Mobilis finished building one of the country’s largest bicycle parking lots along the city’s train line, with room for 8,000 bikes.
Other teams are trying to reinvent vast parking garages entirely. In Melbourne, Australia, for instance, architecture firm Bates Smart has proposed converting the city’s underused lots into community spaces, such as playgrounds and parks. And several shopping centers have converted parts of their parking lots into outdoor restaurants because of the pandemic.
Shifting Gears
In Chicago, Illinois, USA, the City Tech Collaborative urban solutions accelerator launched the Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab, a publicprivate partnership where teams help reconsider the future of the parking lot. The first challenge: 353,031 square meters (3.8 million square feet) of underground parking garages beneath the city’s Millennium Park.
“With 85 years remaining on a long-term operating agreement, Millennium Garages has a vested interest in the future of parking,” says Jamie Ponce, who leads strategic partnerships for the Lab. “Together with other parking facilities, leading management companies, technology providers, policymakers and other urban innovators, Millennium Garages and the Innovation Lab are working to integrate parking into broader transportation systems, improve customer experience, strengthen operations and explore new space uses.”
The Lab launched in March 2020 with a three-year project roadmap to “implement technology-enabled solutions that will position parking facilities to address critical urban challenges.” Every six months, an advisory group of industry leaders, public officials and other lab participants gathers to assess progress, identify new opportunities and prioritize Lab activities.
For example, the Lab is currently working with Bosch and other tech partners to monitor the occupancy and turnover of electric vehicle charging stations in the garages. Understanding the intersection of consumer habits and tech capabilities will better prepare the team to adapt the space to serve a fast-changing future, whether it’s incorporating small robots that can charge EVs parked in any space or autonomous valet parking that allows drivers to drop their car at the curb and let the car drive itself to a spot.
“We’re thinking creatively about the role of parking across mobility, transportation and other critical industries—not simply as a place to stow your car,” says Ponce. “In quickly evolving urban markets, we’re asking, ‘What additional value can parking facilities offer?’ and we’re developing practical solutions to make good on those opportunities.”
—Jamie Ponce, Millennium Gateway Innovation Lab, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Changing Lanes
Cars aren’t completely going away, at least in the near-term, but cities and communities must account for all transportation modes of the future when they invest in new parking lot projects.
“We need to think of buildings in the 50-year-plus time frame if we want to have better solutions,” says Marcus Martinez, co-founder of urban design firm Ultrabarrio, Houston, Texas, USA. “We’ll have far better solutions if we do that.”
In Ultrabarrio’s concept Parked to Place, Martinez and his team propose the construction of ultra-flexible garages that can be transformed to accommodate a wide variety of needs.
“If a garage is going to be in an urban context, put the pedestrian function on display,” Martinez says. “Think about floors being taller, to eventually accommodate more and more programming that can cannibalize the parking program incrementally.”
By considering things like ramp placement and horizontal space, Martinez says, new parking garages can eventually siphon off portions of space across vertical levels, allowing the creation of, for example, retail spaces or a two-story restaurant with a small footprint.
“It takes an enlightened developer, one who’s really interested in long-term investments, to make this kind of project worth it, and it requires cities that are truly concerned about managing structures rather than constantly building and tearing down and building again,” he says. “But it’s a real estate imperative.”