New Light in the Darkness of Garages

Turning, turning, turning recently up what seemed an endless ramp of a cavernous garage; searching, searching, searching for a space for my car, and then waiting, waiting, waiting for someone to back out of one, my thoughts naturally turned to parking structures.

They are essential to life in Los Angeles; we must drive almost everywhere, including places where we like to walk, and when we get there, park.

Yet as ubiquitous as they are, garages tend to be architectural afterthoughts. Most are awkwardly stuck on to, under and above buildings, or squeezed into or behind shopping streets.

Talk about experiencing architectural schizophrenia: There is nothing like approaching a well-detailed, welcoming commercial complex, only to descend into its Stygian subbasement to have to park your car.

There the schizophrenia deepens as one must step gingerly over oil-stained concrete slabs, weave in and out of a maze of gritty vehicles, and through a poorly lit, dented, dirty steel-encased doorway to finally get to the usually sparkling, marble encrusted elegant lobby. So much for interiors.

As for parking structure exteriors, particularly offensive are those that line the sidewalks and out of which poke the front and rear ends of cars. In addition to being simply unattractive and discouraging pedestrian life along the streets, the garages also consume some very valuable retail frontage.

But some light is creeping into the darkness of garage design, and into the garages themselves.

That is what the architectural firm of Welton Beckett & Associates did by creating atriums in the garage at Colorado Place office and restaurant complex at Colorado Boulevard and 26th Street in Santa Monica. There the light and the plantings of the atriums orient visitors parking in the garage to the attractive glass-enclosed elevators that serve the complex above.

A most elegant garage entry can be found at the Rodeo Collection, designed by Olivier Vidal, at 431 N. Rodeo Drive. There a patterned brick-paved ramp curves past potted plants, sculpture pieces, and attentive parking valets, setting the mood for the stores above.

Beverly Hills, in fact, has been a trend setter in developing municipal garages that not only serve the need for parking, but also include shops at street level. This preserves the pedestrian ambiance of the sidewalk while generating a healthy income through rents to the city. Particularly successful is the dual-use garage at 461 N. Bedford Drive, designed by Gensler Associates.

More ambitious is a multi-use garage in the last throes of construction a few blocks away on Crescent Drive. Designed by Kamnitzer and Cotton with the firm’s usual concern for budget and aesthetics, the structure includes parking for 877 cars, 20,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space, and about 150 units of senior citizen housing above.

Also pursuing the concept of multi-use and better-designed garages is the city of Pasadena. Nearing completion at the southeast corner of Union Street and Fair Oaks Avenue is a garage combined with a retail arcade that in scale and tone form a pleasant and needed addition to the surrounding so-called Old Pasadena historic district.

Two more sympathetic multi-use garages are planned in the area, one of which may include a theater complex. They are being designed by the Ehrenkrantz Group.

Recognizing that such multi-use garages are most likely going to become more common as Los Angeles becomes more urban, Arthur Golding had his students at the USC School of Architecture recently devote a semester to studying the potential of such structures.

“Garages are a fact of life in L.A. and I think we have ignored them for too long as a design problem,” commented Golding as he and assorted guests reviewed an imaginative array of solutions by the students.

Unfortunately I missed the first few presentations, for I had a hard time finding a parking space and had to eventually wend my way up to the roof of one of USC’s high-rise garages. The view was spectacular, prompting me to think that it would make a nice site for some apartments.