Scholars Mind

Parking Lots as Architecture

People usually park their cars and then dash on to their destination as quickly as they can; they may not give the parking lot itself a second glance. Liminal spaces are easy to overlook on your way to somewhere else. But some parking lots are self-conscious architectural masterpieces. Read about the Temple Street Parking Garage in New Haven—and then look into these other lots below. Should more parking lots be built with this much architectural flourish, or should they be as invisible as possible?

Most parking garages, as the architect of New Haven's Temple Street Garage put it, are just 'office building structures with the glass left out.' But his garage was designed to look unmistakably like a place for cars and movement; a Lego garage in Denmark wears facades based on toy road plates; and in Detroit, a glorious 1926 movie palace now parks cars beneath crystal chandeliers. Some of the spaces we ignore most turn out to be secret masterpieces.

Key concepts

The Overlooked Liminal Space
The parking lot is pure transit — somewhere you pass through to get somewhere else, beneath notice; that's exactly why it's a liminal space almost no one looks twice at.
Honest Versus Hidden Architecture
Two philosophies: a building that proudly declares what it is (Temple Street insisting 'this is a parking garage') versus one disguised as a blank box meant to disappear.
Adaptive Reuse
Repurposing an old building for a new function — Detroit's ornate Michigan Theater becoming a parking lot can preserve a structure, but it can also be a poignant fall.
Infrastructure As Design Opportunity
Even purely utilitarian structures can delight or deaden a city — whether to lavish design on a garage asks whether the everyday, functional parts of life deserve beauty too.

What to know

  1. 01
    These lots stake out the honest-versus-hidden debate — Temple Street loudly declares 'this is a parking garage' while most garages vanish into blank boxes, so each project argues whether infrastructure should announce itself or disappear.

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