Catalytic Parking: Creating new possibilities in an integrated suburban parking garage

Abstract

Parking garages are ubiquitous and indispensable to modern suburban life, yet they are one of the most unpopular and criticized building types. Though important places of arrival and departure, movement and transition, parking garage design is typically the result of a depressingly pragmatic adherence to functional efficiency. A critique of this status quo, this thesis proposes treating parking as a catalyst for innovative suburban development. By leveraging the scale of parking garages, their role as places of arrival and departure, and striving to integrate rather than separate parking from its context, this thesis seeks to create a new suburban typology.