Suburban sprawl boomed starting in the 1950s with the expansion of the US Interstate Highway System and the effects of the GI Bill. Rates of private vehicle ownership rose sharply, with cheap gas and stagnant mass transit systems further encouraging the use of cars. However, more recent expansion of mass transit systems, a clearer understanding of the environmental impacts of cars, and new alternatives to daily driving, such as ride share apps, bicycle share companies, and the prevalence of remote work, has led Americans to slowly reduce their dependence on cars.
This car dependence has influenced development policy over the decades, driving the construction of ever more elaborate parking systems. Today, there are over two billion parking spaces in the United States, more than enough to cover the entire surface of Connecticut — an estimated three to eight parking spaces for every car in the United States.
A 2022 driving habits survey by U.S. News and World Report found that nearly half of all drivers have reduced the amount they drive compared with before the pandemic, and over 60 percent have reduced their driving because of higher gas prices. The youngest generation of drivers is obtaining licenses at a slower rate than any generation before them, trading personal cars for metro passes and ride share apps.
Municipalities have noticed these shifts and responded by beginning to eliminate parking minimums for new development in transit-oriented communities. In 2017, the city of Buffalo, New York was the first in the United States to abandon parking minimums. Since then, other cities have followed their lead: from Santa Monica, California to Hartford, Connecticut.
These shifts in driving habits expose the latent possibility for more efficient and less expensive new development. According to construction engineering firm, WGI, building a new parking structure costs nearly $28,000 per space. The expense imposed by outdated parking minimum requirements can severely hinder new residential development, further exacerbating ongoing housing shortages.
Eliminating previously built parking structures will have its own negative impact. The waste generated by demolition, not to mention the environmental effect of new construction, makes adaptive reuse an attractive option. By converting a parking structure to housing, waste is minimized and embodied carbon reduced. Starting with an existing structure and eliminating the demolition phase altogether also reduces the construction timeline.
Learnings from Original Concept
A few years ago, the studio proposed a design concept for repurposing underutilized parking structures for housing. The proposed Park House design repurposed 1,091 parking spaces to achieve 119, one- and two-bedroom units.
Developing the Park House concept taught us some important things:
One
To effectively adapt a parking garage for residential, large portions of the parking structure must be flat (or very close to flat).
Two
Working around the ramp presents a challenge, but its central location makes it a natural fit for the community courtyard space.
Three
Distance between floors should be maximized, allowing for at least seven feet of clear height within the units.
Other considerations when considering transformation of a preexisting parking structure include: intrusion into interior clearance height, structural capacity, total building square footage, stair and elevator locations, site access points, and proximity to adjacent buildings.
We also learned that transforming an entire parking structure to residential is a dramatic undertaking, and one that many multifamily developments won’t fully commit to all at once.
Revised Design Concept
Taking what we’ve learned from our first concept, we’ve now developed an incremental approach to repurposing parking structures: Park House 2.0.
Using the 561-space parking structure from a KTGY wrap building located in San Jose, California, as a case study, the Research and Development Studio reimagined how a parking structure could be modified incrementally, creating a four phased approach to this adaptive reuse solution.
With all four phases of the transformation complete, the Park House 2.0 design proposes 91 units on four floors of the five-story parking structure, with 59 parking spaces remaining at the ground level. KTGY’s R+D concept, Park House 2.0, looks to reimagine parking structures in a phased and incremental way, allowing building owners to evolve their developments to respond to the changing needs of their residents, while capturing value in underutilized spaces. It’s difficult to predict how American’s will adapt their driving needs in the future, but an incremental approach makes us quicker to adapt with it.
