Can I live in a parking garage?
April 21, 2008 10:46 AM Subscribe
Can a parking garage be used as anything more than a parking garage?
Basically, I'm looking for examples of creative reuse of parking garages. I've heard of structures being built on top of existing garages before. Does anyone know of any good examples of this? What about reusing the garage itself? If it helps, this is part of some research I'm doing for a school project in Cincinnati.
Basically, I'm looking for examples of creative reuse of parking garages. I've heard of structures being built on top of existing garages before. Does anyone know of any good examples of this? What about reusing the garage itself? If it helps, this is part of some research I'm doing for a school project in Cincinnati.
It can go the other way. Our parking is an old Macy's warehouse converted into a parking structure. So I'd say you could convert one into a warehouse.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:03 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by zengargoyle at 11:03 AM on April 21, 2008
I suspect that zoning and building code will be more limiting than the physical structure (especially if it's a separate building from the house). But, based on your occupation, you probably have that aspect covered.
Can you tell us more about the specific structure you're looking at? I'm guessing it's an older wood-framed garage, in which case I'd be very surprised if it's built such that it would support any addition on the top (not to mention that this would require a building permit).
posted by winston at 11:04 AM on April 21, 2008
Can you tell us more about the specific structure you're looking at? I'm guessing it's an older wood-framed garage, in which case I'd be very surprised if it's built such that it would support any addition on the top (not to mention that this would require a building permit).
posted by winston at 11:04 AM on April 21, 2008
(I'm assuming that you're talking about the type of garage people park in at home. Others seem to assume it's a concrete ramp. It's not clear in the post which it is)
posted by winston at 11:05 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by winston at 11:05 AM on April 21, 2008
Garage converted into a health club in New York.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 11:06 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by otherwordlyglow at 11:06 AM on April 21, 2008
I was told that one of the classroom buildings at Georgia State University started out as a parking garage. There are ramps instead of stairs to get from floor to floor, so the story is plausible, but it might also be a sort of urban legend.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:07 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:07 AM on April 21, 2008
Way back in high school, I went to a rave in a parking garage.
posted by chrisamiller at 11:10 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by chrisamiller at 11:10 AM on April 21, 2008
Apparently, the story I heard is true--see photo #5.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:14 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:14 AM on April 21, 2008
When I was a kid, growing up in a neighborhood with very small houses, it was very popular for people to turn their attached garages into family rooms. I'm sure there was a lot of permit-getting and code-adhering involved, but it must have been worth it for the added living space.
posted by amyms at 11:23 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by amyms at 11:23 AM on April 21, 2008
In Toronto a large condo was built on the top of a multi-story parking garage. It's right on Queens Quay but I don't remember what the name of the development was. Basically it's an infill condo development where they didn't take down the previous building - they simply built on top of it.
posted by GuyZero at 11:34 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by GuyZero at 11:34 AM on April 21, 2008
I believe this condo building in Philly is a converted parking garage. Also the building across the street from it is a parking garage with some offices that look like they were thrown in after the fact.
posted by nazca at 11:35 AM on April 21, 2008
posted by nazca at 11:35 AM on April 21, 2008
My university is semi-famous for burning things following big football wins. Prior to that, there used to be a block party where literally thousands of drunken college students would gather to drink and be stupid. The official "last year" was made even more "last year" when someone decided to shoot at people from one of the house attics.
Anyway, there was much talk of a block party *anyway*, and lots of police were put on the ready, and blah blah blah. Long story short, they converted the largest parking garage in the town into one big huge ass drunk tank. Well, they didn't convert it I guess---they made it so that with like 20 mins of work it COULD be. Fences and chains and cameras and whatnot.
They've never used it though.
posted by TomMelee at 11:48 AM on April 21, 2008
Anyway, there was much talk of a block party *anyway*, and lots of police were put on the ready, and blah blah blah. Long story short, they converted the largest parking garage in the town into one big huge ass drunk tank. Well, they didn't convert it I guess---they made it so that with like 20 mins of work it COULD be. Fences and chains and cameras and whatnot.
They've never used it though.
posted by TomMelee at 11:48 AM on April 21, 2008
Former parking garage in Maryland converted to an office. Scroll down to Orthopedic Associates.
Holiday Inn in LA occupies a former parking garage. (Again, scroll down).
This PDF mentions a building in downtown LA that was a historic parking garage, converted to lofts.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 11:58 AM on April 21, 2008
Holiday Inn in LA occupies a former parking garage. (Again, scroll down).
This PDF mentions a building in downtown LA that was a historic parking garage, converted to lofts.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 11:58 AM on April 21, 2008
It depends on what you want to turn it into, but a typical parking garage (concrete/ramp type, not residential) will probably be of a better type of construction (per the building code), and could thus be quite easily turned into a different kind of building. Some elements of the building might require additional fireproofing, and additional exits might need to be built, but the stucture would most likely be quite adaptable to a different use--it'll probably never get the loads that it did with car traffic unless it's a library.
posted by LionIndex at 12:03 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by LionIndex at 12:03 PM on April 21, 2008
Assuming there were never any gas/oil spills in the garage then yeah you could convert it into living space. Many modern parking garages are cheap, tilt-up construction which probably wouldn't meet residential living specs. There also be an issue with rezoning in certain areas.
posted by JJ86 at 12:13 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by JJ86 at 12:13 PM on April 21, 2008
Response by poster: Thanks for the answers. To clarify, I,m thinking more along the lines of large steel/concrete garages used in commercial applications kind of like this one. The building/zoning code is really not an issue as the project is more of a hypothetical "what if" sort of deal. Does anyone know if these types of garages can structurally support another structure on top of it?
posted by PlannerCarl at 12:15 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by PlannerCarl at 12:15 PM on April 21, 2008
I think the Sports Authority in Denver used to be a parking garage.
posted by tiburon at 12:24 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by tiburon at 12:24 PM on April 21, 2008
Depends if they designed the thing to support an additional structure.
I'm in Cincinnati as well and there is garage that was built within the last few years at the corner of Broadway and 7th that clearly was designed to have something built above it. Case in point, the concrete support columns continue upward even on the top floor. There are also giant bolts sunk into the top of these posts. Granted, they may only intended a roof rather than additional parking levels or inhabitable space but they did intend for the structure to support more weight.
Another case for you in the Procter & Gamble parking garage in downtown Cincinnati. If you go to the top floor of the garage it is very clear that they designed it to have additional floors added. They never have built those extra floors. Rumor has it that the engineers forgot to include the automobiles into the load on the existing structure. An even more plausible explanation is that they didn't want to ruin the sight lines for the offices located just across the street.
posted by mmascolino at 12:27 PM on April 21, 2008
I'm in Cincinnati as well and there is garage that was built within the last few years at the corner of Broadway and 7th that clearly was designed to have something built above it. Case in point, the concrete support columns continue upward even on the top floor. There are also giant bolts sunk into the top of these posts. Granted, they may only intended a roof rather than additional parking levels or inhabitable space but they did intend for the structure to support more weight.
Another case for you in the Procter & Gamble parking garage in downtown Cincinnati. If you go to the top floor of the garage it is very clear that they designed it to have additional floors added. They never have built those extra floors. Rumor has it that the engineers forgot to include the automobiles into the load on the existing structure. An even more plausible explanation is that they didn't want to ruin the sight lines for the offices located just across the street.
posted by mmascolino at 12:27 PM on April 21, 2008
Does anyone know if these types of garages can structurally support another structure on top of it?
You'd have to check the original structural plans of the garage to determine whether the existing columns could support the load of an additional structure built on top of them, and if so, how large/heavy a structure. If the garage was built fairly recently and the structural engineering firm that designed it is still around, that would be pretty easy to determine--you could pretty much just call them up and ask. If it was built a while ago and all you have to go on is the records at the building department, that might be a little dicey. Hopefully, they'll have kept a copy of the structural caculations for the garage, which would show the maximum loads of all the beams, foundations, and columns, and hopefully they'll have the structural plans on file, which would show the member sizing and everything. If the building department doesn't have either, you'd have to do some forensic work and possibly x-ray the columns (if they're reinforced concrete) to see what's in them, as well as unearth the foundations to determine how large they are.
If the current structure cannot adequately support an additional strucuture on top, it may be possible to retrofit the existing structure to provide more load-bearing capacity or add columns or something, but that would really be an engineer's call.
My off-the-cuff answer for the question in general, though, would be that I can't see why the builders of the original garage would provide enough capacity to build an additional structure unless they were already planning to do so. It would require more rebar, higher rated concrete, or larger steel members than they would need otherwise; all of which would obviously entail higher costs, which would basically be pointless if they only ever intended it to be a garage.
posted by LionIndex at 1:07 PM on April 21, 2008
You'd have to check the original structural plans of the garage to determine whether the existing columns could support the load of an additional structure built on top of them, and if so, how large/heavy a structure. If the garage was built fairly recently and the structural engineering firm that designed it is still around, that would be pretty easy to determine--you could pretty much just call them up and ask. If it was built a while ago and all you have to go on is the records at the building department, that might be a little dicey. Hopefully, they'll have kept a copy of the structural caculations for the garage, which would show the maximum loads of all the beams, foundations, and columns, and hopefully they'll have the structural plans on file, which would show the member sizing and everything. If the building department doesn't have either, you'd have to do some forensic work and possibly x-ray the columns (if they're reinforced concrete) to see what's in them, as well as unearth the foundations to determine how large they are.
If the current structure cannot adequately support an additional strucuture on top, it may be possible to retrofit the existing structure to provide more load-bearing capacity or add columns or something, but that would really be an engineer's call.
My off-the-cuff answer for the question in general, though, would be that I can't see why the builders of the original garage would provide enough capacity to build an additional structure unless they were already planning to do so. It would require more rebar, higher rated concrete, or larger steel members than they would need otherwise; all of which would obviously entail higher costs, which would basically be pointless if they only ever intended it to be a garage.
posted by LionIndex at 1:07 PM on April 21, 2008
The Garage in Harvard Square- Cambridge, MA is a shopping mall made out of a former garage.
The Government Center Garage in Boston MA was once nearly condemned for structural problems, but later sprouted offices on top.
The FLEA market at MIT is held in and near a multi-level garage.
posted by Gungho at 1:33 PM on April 21, 2008
The Government Center Garage in Boston MA was once nearly condemned for structural problems, but later sprouted offices on top.
The FLEA market at MIT is held in and near a multi-level garage.
posted by Gungho at 1:33 PM on April 21, 2008
A multi-level skate boarding and rollerblading park. Sheah dude.
posted by proj08 at 1:40 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by proj08 at 1:40 PM on April 21, 2008
PlannerCarl, the garage you link to is a tilt-up precast concrete construction. They really are not designed to be modifiable and are the cheapest type of construction. Because of the continuous sloping floors it is not likely you could really convert it into anything other than parking.
posted by JJ86 at 1:57 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by JJ86 at 1:57 PM on April 21, 2008
Early on in the occupation of Iraq I heard that unlike the naive Yanks, making camp out in the open, when setting up their headquarters in Baghdad the British drove RVs and support vehicles into a central parking structure for their HQ, as it afforded ready-made shelter and protection.
Note that in certain parts of the midwest, these buildings are known as "ramps"
posted by Rash at 6:24 PM on April 21, 2008
Note that in certain parts of the midwest, these buildings are known as "ramps"
posted by Rash at 6:24 PM on April 21, 2008
The Ballston Common Mall, in northern VA, has an indoor ice-skating rink (two, actually) on the top floors of its parking garage. I think it was purpose-built rather than retrofitted into an existing garage space -- whether it was there from the very beginning of the design or added onto later I'm not sure -- but it's not constructed much differently than the rest of the garage. It takes up the equivalent of at least two floors and it has enclosed walls, but it's the same reinforced concrete as the rest of the garage structure.
Not really something that you could easily just DIY into an existing garage (at least not without some engineering studies), though.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:21 PM on April 21, 2008
Not really something that you could easily just DIY into an existing garage (at least not without some engineering studies), though.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:21 PM on April 21, 2008
In the mid-90s I lived across the street from Ballston, and that parking structure seemed to be under-utilized. There wasn't any skating rink up there then; I think this is just the sort of example the OP is looking for.
posted by Rash at 3:34 PM on April 22, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 3:34 PM on April 22, 2008 [1 favorite]
PlannerCarl: Did you ever find one of those bunker-like parking garages that is going to be reused for something else? I've been doing research on this for a magazine article and have found re-purposing only for garages from the 1920s, which are already part of the urban fabric and often quite ornate -- they look like commercial buildings from that period. Please let me know if you find anything. It would be quite enlightening.
posted by valmoses at 12:18 PM on September 3, 2008
posted by valmoses at 12:18 PM on September 3, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Leon-arto at 10:55 AM on April 21, 2008