At the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, parking and circulation are carefully woven into the design, functioning as part of a larger ensemble. Design Credit: Polshek Partnership (now Ennead Architects) (Build a Better Burb; Image Credit: ©Jeff Goldberg/Esto)

Darius Sollohub, director of the New Jersey School of Architecture, served as a design adviser for the Long Island Index’s ParkingPLUS Design Challenge. Sollohub’s research has centered on public transportation and sustainable urban planning. He co-authoredParking Matters: Designing, Operating, and Financing Structured Parking in Smart Growth Communities. We discussed his experience with parking design in the New Jersey suburbs and his reflections on ParkingPLUS in April 2014.

You’ve closely studied the aesthetics and operation of parking in several New Jersey communities. What did your research reveal about parking and downtown revitalization?  

Darius Sollohub: Probably the most important lesson is that parking is a serious issue and no one should take it lightly. Any downtown revitalization today will require structured parking. Designers and planners must do their homework to prepare for an extended process. The financing has to work and using proven shared parking models to get the capacity right will help [projects] remain fiscally sustainable. And remember that most citizens dread structured parking; there needs to be a long learning curve to turn fear into an understanding that a garage is a necessity. Perception from the street matters greatly. Well-integrated parking garages must hybridize with other structures and programs to be successful. And they should always strive toward the highest aesthetic possible.

Utile, the firm that designed Civic Arches for ParkingPLUS, makes the case that utilitarian structures should be beautiful. As an architect who specializes in infrastructure planning, what’s your take on this? 

Sollohub: A quote I use in my classes is one that Charles Zueblin said in 1905 to describe the Columbian Exposition: “There never was a better demonstration of the fact that proper regard for the utilitarian is the best guarantee of the beautiful.” All utilitarian structures should be beautiful, but that beauty is intricately associated with their use and how we feel about them.

We might ask ourselves the question, why is it that so many communities want to disguise the utilitarian cell phone tower as a fake tree? They fool no one and actually call more attention to them. Or why are there hundreds of parking structures that have false façades that make people initially think they are foreclosed buildings with all the windows broken? There seems to be much cultural confusion about the beauty of the utilitarian.

Accommodating the utilitarian is never easy; it comes down to making the case for why you should celebrate your utilities and not hide them. Utile handled this very well by recognizing the inherent beauty of the adjacent Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) viaduct and migrating that feeling into the street-level spaces in and around their garages without any form of mimicry. It makes a compelling argument for those spaces....Continue Reading

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