All may not be lost in Parking Garages - Look to Wichita for inspiration

[shinatoo]

Wichita Firm converts old parking garage into apartments. http://www.kansas.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/keeper-of-the-plans/article208445814.html

Pretty cool and innovative project. I assume leveling the floors would be the biggest issue but looking at the spiral entrance to that garage they might have had level floors already.

[longviewmo]

I have some cool pics of this place... need to post them here when I get back to Wichita (so a couple weeks).

[ldai_phs]

IIRC The new garage Copaken built in the crossroads was designed to be converted to offices or apartments in the future.

[tower]

Pretty cool that it was able to provide parking right outside of the door. They say in the article that it was pretty expensive though, I think in many cases it might be more cost effective to tear down and build new. You could fit more apartments that way, and build higher. Tearing this down might have been difficult here because it was listed on the national register of historic places. (lol)

[HalcyonKC]

To be honest, I've sort of cringed over the years watching a handful of new residential construction projects go up in downtown KC--and, post-Greensburg tornado, seeing that the most substantial part of the buildings is almost always the freaking parking garage. These developments' garages are built out of sturdy concrete and steel of course, then surrounded or stacked on top with inherently flimsier wood construction which becomes the actual living space.

If the end product of a garage conversion is vastly stronger than a stick-built replacement alternative and the end product doesn't look like crap, maybe tearing down a garage really is a waste in some cases.