Parking Garages in SC: Love 'em or hate 'em?

[Skyliner]

I was advised that we should have a thread dedicated to the many parking garages located throughout the state. Do you think they are necessary? Should they be built above ground, or below? Should they have a standard design, or should they carry significant architectural appeal? What are some examples of good design and appeal? What are the poorly designed garages in our state? What defines a good exterior design? What is the most effective use for parking facilities in our urban areas? --- You get the idea.

Post photos and anything else you think will help this discussion here. This should be fun.

[Skyliner]

Here are a couple recent additions to downtown Greenville. These show a great exterior design and have a nice appeal that blends with the surrounding buildings.

The Poinsett Plaza Garage, from McBee Avenue. This side shows the limestone facade used to match the exterior of the Carolina First building it serves.

Photo taken by RestedTraveler

This is from the opposite side. You can see a small part of the garage peeking out from behind several other buildings in the center. Notice the dark color brick veneer used to match the 1920s Westin Poinsett Hotel. This was the first garage to be designed with multiple facades in the Upstate.

Photo taken by RestedTraveler

The Spring Street Garage

Photo taken by RestedTraveler

The Richardson Street Garage

Photo Here

There are several garages in downtown Greenville. Many of them have nice exterior design, while some don't.

• Commons - Hyatt Regency

• Liberty Square

• S. Spring Street - Wachovia Place and The Bookends

• Church Street - Bi-Lo Center

• Richardson Street

• Poinsett - Poinsett Plaza

• N. Laurens Street (semi-subterranean)

• West Washington Street - GTA (semi-subterranean)

• Bowater - Bowater HQ and Falls Park

• River Street - Poinsett Corners

• First Citizens (semi-subterranean)

• Greenville County Library (semi-subterranean)

• RiverPlace (subterranean)

• 400 North Main (subterranean)

• Greenville News (semi-subterranean)

• City Plaza (semi-subterranean)

• The Richland at Cleveland Park (semi-subterranean)

• Bank of America Plaza (soon to be partially demolished)

• Landmark Building

• BB&T Building (semi-subterranean)

• Ogletree Building (semi-subterranean)

• Greenville Hospital System (several garages, some semi-subterranean)

• Haywood Mall

These are the ones I can think of right now.

Near the city, there are two large garages at GSP International Airport.

There are several new ones about to be built and proposed, but many of these will probably be private.

Here is a link to the City's Public Downtown Parking Decks and Lots. This will help you know where to find most of them.

[Spartan]

Please inform us and show off your city's parking garges

I will start with Spartanburg:

The Magnolia St Garage:

Extended Stay America HQ to the right.

These are both of the Magnolia St entrance. They are made with brick to match the ESA building on Morgan Square (seen in the distance). The Church St entrance is made with stucco to match the Palmetto Bank buliding to the left in the second picture. This garage is the primary garage for Morgan Square, as well as other bulidings downtown- namely ESA and the Palmetto Bank.

The Dunbar St Garage:

This is the only one I have at the moment. It is available for many of the office buildings in the surrounding area. It has direct access to Main St just one block over (I took this image from Main St).

We also have

• The Kennedy St Garage (between Liberty and Converse), which is attached to the rear of Broadwalk. It was basicly put in for workers in Dennys Tower. I don't have any images of it though.

• The Marriott has a public subterranean garage.

• QS/1 has a small garage as well, but it is private I think.

• We have a 5th public garage planned for St John St behind the Montgomery tower.

• The Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium is planning a garage. I am unclear if it will be public or private.

We both started similar threads at the same time... so here we are.

[Skyliner]

I'm getting tired of these sql problems!!! I had a nice long post created and it kicked me off. This is just plain annoying!

Edit: Alright, it appears to be fixed today!

[btoy]

The Spring St. Garage recently won some Architectural Awards.

[Skyliner]

The Spring St. Garage recently won some Architectural Awards.

Here are a few links to stories regarding the awards. I haven't looked very far for these, so I'm sure there are better links out there.

http://www.carlwalker.com/C1GetRecent.asp

http://www.cgdarch.com/news.php?news_id=61

http://www.gsabusiness.com/addedValuesPI/s...eader$1050

[GvilleSC]

I like the Richardson Street Parking Garage's facade, BUT I hate its layout. Because there is an entirely different way out than coming in, so you take a risk going down to look for a spot or you can just continue going up... if that makes any sense.

[krazeeboi]

I LOVE the Spring Street garage in Greenville. The one in Sioux City is looking sweet, too! It actually looks like it could be a museum or a library or something like that.

[RestedTraveler]

I'm getting tired of these sql problems!!! I had a nice long post created and it kicked me off. This is just plain annoying!

Edit: Alright, it appears to be fixed today!

I've been running into the same thing. What can I say....MySQL vs. Oracle. You get what you pay for

(Couldn't resist the shameless self promoting plug)

[Mr.Marc]

I LOVE the Spring Street garage in Greenville. The one in Sioux City is looking sweet, too! It actually looks like it could be a museum or a library or something like that.

A library is exactly what I thought the Spring St. garage was at first glimpse.

[krazeeboi]

Here's the garage undergoing renovations/improvements in downtown Rock Hill. I wish I had a picture of how it looked before so you could see the contrast.

[Skyliner]

Although I haven't seen a picture of the original garage exterior, I have to say that will definitely be an improvement and not an eyesore. It's amazing how a good design can actually attract people to park, rather than drive on by.

[Spartan]

I can image that it did not look very good. We have a two level garage in Spartanburg that I forgot to mention (on Broad St) that looks like crap, and its not very fundtion (its dark, and feels very unsafe).

Where is that garage?

[krazeeboi]

That garage is on East Black Street, across from the public library.

[GvilleSC]

Wow, you'd think Greenville, Spartanburg and Rock Hill are the only cities in SC with garages.

[sonofaque86]

lmao. i dont think anybody in the Columbia forum has taken any pictures of parking garages yet

[RestedTraveler]

Wow, you'd think Greenville, Spartanburg and Rock Hill are the only cities in SC with garages.

Charleston has a ton of them...they're just not as easy to find and aren't as clearly marked with the big green circle and white "P" like Greenville's are. I'm not sure about Columbia. I'm sure there are some, but I just don't recall seeing any. Clemson has one now, doesn't it?

Here are a couple more from G-Vegas:

The Richardson Street Garage (FREE WEEKEND PARKING):

The other side of the Poinsett Plaza Parking Garage Coin (notice it has two distinct faces, depending on whether you're looking at it from McBee Street or Court Street):

The Washington Street Parking Deck / Greenville Transit Authority Transfer Station (FREE EVENING & WEEKEND PARKING):

[sonofaque86]

I'm sure Columbia has the most with all the highrises downtown, where would the cars go? I guess I'll try and take some with my camera phone later on

[Skyliner]

Columbia definitely has them. The question is, what are the nicer designs there, and what are some of the poor designs. I'm pretty sure Columbia has the largest and tallest of the garages in SC at the Wachovia (?) building.

Greenville has many new ones coming soon, most of which will be part of mixed-use developments thoughout downtown.

[sonofaque86]

Ok, I'll try to find another pic of the new one built for the Meridian highrise but here's a peace of it I found...It looks like a smaller version of the Meridian tower...

[Skyliner]

So it has an open-air stairwell on this side? That is a negative, in my opinion. It is a fairly sizeable garage, and has a similar facade as its tower, a positive. Are there any other architectural features to the structure not visible in this shot?

[sonofaque86]

Yeah, I think the design isn't very good...I think it's like that all around if I'm not mistaken

[krazeeboi]

Went down to Columbia today and while I was there, I decided to take a few shots of some parking garages downtown to contribute to this thread:

Here's the one on Sumter that sonofaque86 just showed us:

This one is right across from Finlay Park on Lincoln in the Arsenal Hill neighborhood. It's sorta tucked away and can be easy to miss:

Here's the one on Assembly from Finlay Park:

Palmetto Health garage on Hampton:

Palmetto Health garage on Sumter, which, IMHO, is the nicest one in the city. It connects to the hospital by way of a skybridge:

Now here's my nominee for Ugly Garage award. This is the one next to 1301 Gervais (Wilbur Smith building) on Sumter:

[Skyliner]

Thanks krazeeboi. Yeah that last one is disgusting. Even a plain brick veneer all the way up would look a world better. The garage on Hampton is a very good design.

Now this is what I call a creatively positive design for a garage to supply a tower. This is the proposed Tower at Falls and Broad in Greenville. The "buildings to the left are part of the three-story garage. They look more like residential and retail than parking, because the front portion is actually available space for those purposes.

The Tower at Falls and Broad

[krazeeboi]

I sure hope the tower gets built. And I agree, that IS a great design for a garage.