There is a growing trend in developing parking garages that are more than places in which to merely park a car. They are becoming increasingly complex and are evolving architecturally. Those in municipal settings may typically include ground floor retail, office uses, or even ground floor transportation centers. Architecturally, clients are requiring that they fit into the urban fabric by altering the features common to a conventional parking structure. In addition, many are no longer simple structures offering one class parking, but may now include multiple classes of parking, each with its own entrance and exit - hence a parking garage within a parking garage. At airports too, parking garages have become more than parking garages. Many have become truly intermodal facilities in which the structure serves as the place to park one's car, rent and return rental cars, board hotel shuttles, taxis, or commercial transportation. Airlines have even taken advantage of the parking structure, which is frequently greater in floor area than the terminal; by requesting to incorporate bag check-in facilities, bag claim facilities, and even "behind the scenes" activity such as bag make up area for outbound flights. The paper will explore the issues that must be addressed in developing "Parking Garage Plus" projects in which far more than just parking must be incorporated into the structure. It will outline real projects and address the methods by which all required elements have and can be incorporated while holding "compromises" to the minimum.
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