Parking garages are no longer just nondescript concrete slabs. Earlier this month, the Green Parking Council (GPC) announced the first seven parking facilities in the country to achieve Green Garage Certification.
The title is determined by a rating system that factors in 48 elements of garage operation, structure, and technology, and recognizes sustainable practices in parking structure management.
The seven garages are located throughout the U.S. and have various uses. Four of them are office buildings: Brookfield’s Bank of America Plaza in Los Angeles; BG Holdco LLC’s BG Group Place in Houston; and Brookfield’s Silver Spring Metro Plaza and JLL’s Westpark Corporate Center, both in the Metro Washington D.C. area.
Cornell University’s Forest Home Garage in Ithaca, N.Y., is the lone school represented on the list, while Charles Square Hotel’s garage in Cambridge, Mass., and Och Ziff Capital Management Group Parking Acquisition Ventures’ Canopy Airport Parking in Denver are the only lodging and transportation venues on the list.
A variety of factors can make a parking garage green, from enhanced ventilation and energy-efficient lighting to greywater reuse and rainwater harvesting. Some have guidance systems to help drivers find their cars, others have tire inflation and electric car fueling stations, as well as car sharing and bicycle parking options.
The advantages of green garages not only help drivers but they also serve to benefit building owners. Reduced energy from lighting, ventilation, controls, and commissioning measures can keep operational costs around 25% lower than the national average.
Related Stories
Transportation & Parking Facilities | May 20, 2015
Federal Highway Administration releases guide for protected bike lanes
The guide consolidates lessons learned from practitioners designing and implementing separated bike lanes across the U.S.
Transportation & Parking Facilities | May 7, 2015
Salt Lake City on track to build first protected bicycle intersection in the U.S.
The templates are based on those found on Dutch streets.
High-rise Construction | May 6, 2015
Parks in the sky? Subterranean bike paths? Meet the livable city, designed in 3D
Today’s great cities must be resilient—and open—to many things, including the influx of humanity, writes Gensler co-CEO Andy Cohen.
Building Team Awards | Apr 10, 2015
14 projects that push AEC teaming to the limits
From Lean construction to tri-party IPD to advanced BIM/VDC coordination, these 14 Building Teams demonstrate the power of collaboration in delivering award-winning buildings. These are the 2015 Building Team Award winners.
Building Team Awards | Apr 10, 2015
Anaheim’s soaring intermodal hub
Anaheim's Regional Transportations Intermodal Center is the largest ETFE project in North America.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Nation's first LEED-certified bus depot
A bus garage in Harlem shows that even the most mundane of facilities can strut its environmentally sensitive stuff.
Structural Materials | Mar 30, 2015
12 projects earn structural steel industry's top building award
Calatrava's soaring Innovation Science and Technology Building at Florida Polytechnic University is among the 12 projects honored by the American Institute of Steel Construction in the 2015 IDEAS² awards competition.
Transit Facilities | Mar 4, 2015
5+design looks to mountains for Chinese transport hub design
The complex, Diamond Hill, will feature sloping rooflines and a mountain-like silhouette inspired by traditional Chinese landscape paintings.
Sponsored | | Mar 3, 2015
New York’s Fulton Center relies on TGP for light-flooded, underground transit hub
Fire-rated curtain wall systems filled this subterranean hub with natural light.
Transit Facilities | Feb 12, 2015
Gensler proposes network of cycle highways in London’s unused underground
Unused tube lines would host pedestrian paths, cycle routes, cultural spaces, and retail outlets.
