Beautiful Parking Garages? C'est Possible!

[PonderInc]

Parking: Can't live with it, can't live without it.  

Revitalization and development efforts in Tulsa invariably include talk of "where to park."  Thus, it's time to realize the potential for beautiful, mixed-use...and, yes...pedestrian-friendly parking structures.

Impossible?  Not at all.  Here are some award-winning examples of exemplary parking structures.




Yes, you can park in them!  These are parking garages! (These examples can be found in Boulder and Bloomfield, CO; Kansas City, MO and Lincoln, NE; and Miami Beach, FL.)

Proposal 1: Parking garages should be encouraged over surface parking lots whenever possible.
Proposal 2: All parking garages should include ground-floor retail space, accessible to pedestrians.
Proposal 3: Parking garages should blend naturally with the architecture of the surrounding built environment.
Proposal 4: Let's do it, Tulsa!

[Townsend]

Frank Gehry designed this steel-mesh garage that is illuminated at night by multicolored LED lights as part of his New World Center concert hall in Miami Beach, Fla. The city has become a magnet for high-end architects intent on rethinking the often drab parking garage.

And more on a slideshow:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577167130430862756.html?mod=yahoo_RE#slide/1

[we vs us]

Good excuse to post a pic of a new garage at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.  First level is shopping (campus bookstore, the world's first mini-Wal Mart) and then there're are least a couple (probably more) levels of parking. 

A total improvement from what used to be there when I was at the U of A.  A poorly graded gravel lot, if I remember correctly.

[Ibanez]

And more on a slideshow:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577167130430862756.html?mod=yahoo_RE#slide/1

That reminds me of one I saw in Boston a couple of years ago.

[rdj]

I wonder if they could add lights to the parking garage at 6th & Boston and make it look similar to the Gehry design you posted?

[Townsend]

I wonder if they could add lights to the parking garage at 5th & Boston and make it look similar to the Gehry design you posted?

I thought the same thing but I don't know if there are any issues to be overcome in order to do so.

Are there zoning issues against lighting like this in DT?

[Conan71]

I thought the same thing but I don't know if there are any issues to be overcome in order to do so.

Are there zoning issues against lighting like this in DT?

It would probably give patric a stroke.

[Townsend]

It would probably give patric a stroke.

Have there been issues with the neons in Bluedome?

[rdj]

That garage was purchased by an investment group in Dallas, Belclair Co, from Central Parking Corp in 2008.  They also own the parking lot that is north of the Kennedy Building.

I think it'd be worth exploring.  I've never parked there.  Is it a daily fee garage or a monthly reserved?

[Hoss]

It would probably give patric a stroke.

Thinking the same, you and I.

[DowntownDan]

I'm really disappointed that the new parking garage extension north of the BOK Tower does not include any ground floor retail space.  It is a good parking area for BOK Center events and several people walk by that area and park there on a daily basis.  I wish they had incorporated some store fronts into it.

[TheArtist]

I'm really disappointed that the new parking garage extension north of the BOK Tower does not include any ground floor retail space.  It is a good parking area for BOK Center events and several people walk by that area and park there on a daily basis.  I wish they had incorporated some store fronts into it.

"Several people" does not a good business model make.

[TheArtist]

I had some people at the museum space the other day from Toronto and Singapore who were in town to check out Tulsa's Art Deco attractions.  They wanted to see the Boston Ave Church so I went out front with them to point it out.  They opted to drive to see it. AND ITS JUST RIGHT THERE! Now, they already had a parking space, and they were urbanites used to walking MUCH longer distances.  When I was in NYC last you would easily walk miles... and enjoy it!  But because our downtown is so decimated, people who would normally walk a few measly blocks from one area to the next, most likely won't.  This is not a "parking shortage" problem, its a pedestrian friendly/transit friendly problem.

Do we want to spend more money on parking garages or use that money to get better transit going?  Also, parking garages take up money and space that could be used to hold people instead of cars, aka several floors of living and or businesses, thus they decrease pedestrian traffic in the core. Plus, the more parking garages you have, the more likely you are to have the situation where people drive near to where they want to go, go to that place, go back to the car, and not walk by my restaurant/shop,museum, etc.  They take people off the sidewalks.  Just as the suburban business likes a street with lots of cars "eyes" driving by to see their business, the urban business likes having as many people as possible walking by.

A while back there was another group of people from back east that had stopped at the museum while they were in town to see the Route 66 attractions in Tulsa.  They wanted to go somewhere to eat and I told them about the stuff nearby and the stuff in the Blue Dome.  They opted to go to the Blue Dome.  I would have told them to walk for its a short distance, but then thought about how miserable a walk it is and suggested they drive.  

Again, not a parking shortage problem, they already had parking, and were now going to drive to another place, not walk by more businesses etc. to find yet another parking space.  It was a pedestrian friendly/transit friendly problem.  The better your pedestrian streets are the better  and more cost effective your transit will be.

What if we had good downtown transit and pedestrian friendly streets linking the different areas of downtown?

Some say that if you build parking garages with retail on the ground floor it acts as a "transition" from the car culture to the pedestrian friendly.  What I have seen does not support this.  Look at Uptown Dallas for instance.  Lots of "fake urbanity" in which people still drive and there are more and more parking garages and transit that never really works well for the sidewalks arent working well enough with enough "people density". The people density is taken up instead with parking garages. Blocks that are essentially hollowed out shells full of parking spaces wrapped with a faux urban facade "the Texas Donut".

What I see happening is that this mutated form that is a cross between urban and suburban itself keeps growing.  It doesn't transition from one to the other. Its expensive and doesn't really make either the urbanite or suburbanite truly happy.  Good urban streets are a joy to walk down and could really give Tulsa an edge.  

Its not going to be easy to create a vital downtown no matter which direction we go.  We are a lot slower growing than some other cities so if we go down the "mutated/fake urbanity" model, we will be stuck with it for a LONG time, never really catching up with those "greener pastures" our young people and businesses look at today. But I submit to you that we have plenty of parking already and instead of the city and businesses paying for more parking, pay instead for transit that circulates around to the parking we have already.  This will allow us to evolve and create a more dense, pedestrian friendly, attractive, above average, more competitive, urban environment.  

Look again at those examples I stated earlier.  Those people could have parked by the Boston Ave church and then gone everywhere else in downtown with transit. Also this again frees up new construction from having to build as much parking and thus enhancing and extending our pedestrian friendly zones which reinforces transit, which reinforces the pedestrian nature, etc. etc.  (compare that to the fake urban model which requires you building more and more parking garages surrounded by a facade of retail/businesses, living, etc.)

Or they could have parked by the arena, gone to the Deco District, then the Blue dome, then back,,, and parked just once. Perhaps there would even be a day when people could park across the river, or at the Fin Tube site, and take a starter rail to downtown and be able to walk block after block after block throughout our downtown and spend the whole day there. Businessmen, tourists/visitors, people who live downtown, etc. not feel like they need a car at all or rent one on the occasion when they do.  There is PLENTY of parking in and around downtown, lets help people get from that parking to the core that will then grow more pedestrian friendly, etc. with transit) But growing Dallas type fake urbanity with people driving to an area that is not really dense enough to support true urbanity, full of parking garage after parking garage (essentially expensive suburbia trying to pay for both parking garages and transit and neither that satisfactory) and never walking very far, etc.,,, I just don't want that for Tulsa.  We can do better and now is the time in our development to make the descision on which growth model we are going to go for.  

I don't care how fancy a parking garage looks. I would rather spend the money on a trolley going by the ample parking we got all around downtown and dropping people off in the core.  That would look much better imo.  And work better in the long run to boot.    

[Townsend]

I don't care how fancy a parking garage looks. I would rather spend the money on a trolley going by the ample parking we got all around downtown and dropping people off in the core.  That would look much better imo.  And work better in the long run to boot.    

I'm wishing for any pony that gets rid of a few surface lots.

[TheArtist]

I'm wishing for any pony that gets rid of a few surface lots.

If I were a developer and there was transit getting people to my business, or the pedestrian friendly area around my business,,,I wouldn't have to build or pay for parking nearby, or nearly as much parking.  If every developer is looking at a space and going... I have to pay for my development and parking, how am I going to squeeze in more parking because I need to get my clients to my building, etc.... but what if the trolley ran nearby? What if there were more and more people walking by? What if instead of block after block of light/fake density, you had a lot of higher real density (aka lots of potential clients) nearby.  Might alleviate some of that concern. If downtown has FANTASTIC pedestrian friendly streets.  This is a way to compete with the suburbs.  You cant compete with the suburban strip mall for car convenience.  But if downtown itself is an attraction because it has superb, lively pedestrian friendly streets that are a joy to walk down, and transit is available to get you from the parking that exists and through the core,,, then you can compete.  Not just with suburbia, but with other cities as well. You don't compete with suburbia on its terms, you will lose if you try that.  

There are around 200 square miles of suburbia in Tulsa for those who want that lifestyle. And bravo for Tulsa being able to offer some of the best suburban style living anywhere.  But can't we make .5% of that area be good urbanity for the urbanites that want that?  Statistics and demographics show that more and more people are wanting to live in a good urban environment.  Not a half-arsed urban environment.  

Seems like we first think of catering more to the suburbanite than the urbanite in our downtown.  But so many of them will never be truly happy downtown or going downtown.  Guess what I heard some say the other day?  "Parking garages are scary"...  Yet we will try and do what they want while ignoring what a real urbanite wants.  We got plenty of suburban for those that want that, why try to cater to them while ignoring what the real urbanite wants?  We keep losing urbanites to other cities while we scramble to soothe suburbanites worrying about bums and homeless, not enough lighting, scary looking buildings in downtown, ugly highways leading into downtown, not enough parking, etc. etc. etc.

As a mural artist I often get asked to do a little redecorating or advice on a room.  One lady I remember had some pictures from a magazine and had tried to make her room like the one in the pictures.  She had tried and tried but couldn't do it.  I talked with her for a bit and realized that what was happening was that she didn't realize what it truly was that made the room attractive to her,,, she had missed the real factors.  She thought she knew, but didn't.  One time another client wasn't happy with a room and I could see that all the parts were there, they just needed to be arranged differently.  I tried explaining things to her but everything seemed to go against what she "knew" to be right. But I told her to trust me (sometimes have to do this with my art for it often doesn't look the "way they think its supposed to" at first) and when I was done, they loved it.  

A great urban environment is kind of like that. The suburbanite may say we need to do this or that, etc. complain about this or that,,, but they are really missing the point.  

Nobody is going to walk in Tulsa.

I submit that its not because people here simply won't walk, but its because we don't have any (or many) really good places too walk.  Even big city people will not walk far in our downtown because the walks are so sucky lol.

I was at a downtown CORE meeting the other day.  There were some wide ranging opinions on what needed to be done in downtown. But I did notice a couple of trends.  I noticed that some people who had lived in other big cities at one time or another saw problems differently, or didnt see there was a problem at all, compared to some old time locals and "suburbanite types".  City person,,, bums? who cares? So what?  Others, OMG what are we going to do about the bums scaring off everyone!?   ( I know that in NYC I felt safer on the streets than in Tulsa. Not because there may or may not have been more or less bums, but because there were hundreds of other people on the streets with me. A bustling streetscape will make the streets feel safe. Plus city dwellers are used to that. And don't tell me about scary looking people. I have been in those suburban Wal-Marts and seen whats in there. If I hadn't been with a bunch of other people or had seen them on the street with me being the only other one there I might have been scared too lol). One lady complained that the street parking restriping had taken a parking spot from in front of her business.  Another business owner who I know is more of an urbanite spoke up and said... "So what, I simply walk another block, big deal." OVer and over you could see this dichotomy and how the different perspectives, urban vrs suburban, ended up coming to different conclusions. Which direction do we want our downtown to go? 

Do we want to grow our downtown to become a place where urbanites and their concerns, likes/dislikes are the most important to be taken into account, and take their advice on how to create a vibrant, attractive urban core,,, or do we want to primarily listen to the advice of suburbanites?  I think we can attract suburbanites to downtown, but their notions on how to make a downtown work, might not be the best ones to listen to.  They may know what they like when they see it, but like I illustrated above with my clients, they often don't know how to get there.  They are used to their world and how it works.  Trying to use their solutions for what they see as problems downtown, over the advice of people who are urbanites, might not be so wise.