I have plenty of nits to pick with parking decks around town and as a fellow nit-picker, this is the deck you’re going to slightly less RAGE against…? Because of some lipstick splatter ? 
OK, I’ll take the building here, deck included, since I wouldn’t want the developer to take their deck and go home…
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Are you asking if I think that deck pictured is less ugly than a bare concrete deck twice the height with cheap vinyl banners hanging down as “screening” …? If so… yeah lmao
To reiterate though… I like the building and street-level retail spaces. Just not the deck (as usual).
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Elevations can be misleading, so we’ll see how this shakes out. Good banter tho -
I’m in the camp that thinks ‘We need more Donuts’ - meaning, wrap those damn decks with places to live…make them treats sweet.
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Maybe once you get to know the deck, you’ll learn to like it over time.
BTW where are you seeing the “cheap vinyl banners” bit? I can barely read that print, but it says something about mesh screening or a mural, doesn’t it?
Ignore him @PedroPastrana Gucci a little petty sometimes because of my obsession with his First name of his account here
Well yeah i Guess The Paint would fit on this building like arts
All I see is “Light steel framing with mesh screen.” One elevation adds to that “with vegetative screening and/or mural.”
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that was just a 
assumption
Basically, you’d need enough space to be able to slide an entire separate one-sided building in front of the parking deck - plus another 10’ (to avoid having to run fans 24/7 because the garage is “enclosed”). Given that parking decks are only built in places where land is expensive, and that decks have very unforgiving minimum geometries (the most efficient spiral deck is 120’ wide and 190’+ long to get both the ramps in and parking spaces along all the driveways) it’s really tough to hide the entire deck within anything less than a full-block site… which has its own deadening effect on the streetscape.
Yes, smaller-footprint decks do exist, but they’re less efficient at getting every available parking space per floor - and so they cost considerably more per parking space. That might be worth it in a place where people pay $$$ for parking, but not here.
The elevations shown really overstate the visual impact of this particular garage, which will be screened by other buildings on two sides. Only the Morgan side of the garage won’t be behind something else.
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Always, a voice of reason you are.
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Interesting context. Thanks. Any insight into the economics of underground decks? I believe Seaboard is going this route.
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Pre-covid, developers were paying $15k-$17k per parking space on precast garages, $30k-$35k per space on above ground cast in place concrete, and $55k-$60k per space for underground. Keep in mind that most of the land in the urban core is brownsfield(contaminated soils) which means the developers will have to pay more money for remediation so they just choose to build above ground.
With current market conditions, add 20-30% to each price to be able to build any type of parking structure. Costs of materials plus higher interest rates is driving developers to figure out ways to build it but at a cheaper price 
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Even an above-ground garage ends up costing over $200 per apartment per month. This calculation was from 2015, and both concrete prices & interest rates have increased considerably; IIRC, recent cost survey put typical parking deck spaces in the low $20Ks
As a planner, it was easy to admire places like CityCenterDC or the Wharf, where huge underground parking garages made it possible to do pedestrian-scaled small blocks at grade without dark garages and annoying driveways. But now as a developer, now I can only think “those garages cost hundreds of millions of dollars, somebody has got to pay for that, no wonder I can’t find food for $10 here!”
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As long as retail, services, event spaces, etc. are scaled to require more patrons that the walkshed neighborhood provides, there’s always going to be a strategy to bring others to developments. In the case of suburban strip centers, the requirement is for all of the patrons to drive there, hence the huge parking lots that dot our city outside the center today. For places like North Hills, Kane has provided housing for a built-in collection of patrons, but they are clearly not enough since many continue to drive there.
As for downtown, I think that thoughtful scale matters when it comes to development. I’ll use grocers as an example. While I love that I can walk to Publix, I know that the scale of the store presumes that partons beyond the walkshed must be reached in order to be viable. On the other hand, a grocer the scale of Weaver Street in the Warehouse district seems to be scaled to the size of its walk shed. I certainly don’t know the number of walkers vs drivers, but my presumption is that Weaver Street has a higher percentage of patrons that arrive by foot than does Publix.
If we don’t provide transportation alternatives to retail/services/entertainment developments that are scaled beyond their immediate walk shed, or if those developments don’t spur developments to add more people/patrons to the walk shed, substantial parking will unfortunately need to be provided.
Don’t get me wrong here, I am not saying that we are anywhere near providing substantial development with zero parking, but it’s not hard to imagine providing less parking as more residents are added in the immediate periphery of the development. I’ll also add that ideally these developments aren’t separated from their walk shed periphery by stroads or freeways as is the case with North Hills and Downtown South. This sort of infrastructure tells us to drive and discourages us from walking.
In the end, this is why I have such high hope for the entire west side of downtown corridor from Glenwood South through the Warehouse District. It’s filling in with more and more residents and it’s not bullied by pedestrian unfriendly infrastructure. Could it be better? It certainly can. However, it could be substantially worse. This particular block will add more patrons to places like Weaver Street, the retail at The Dillon, the MSFH, etc., and will also feed experiences throughout the west side.
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So this is expected to start construction this year. “We look forward to beginning construction on our project early in 2023 and sharing more details in due time." They just had an Appearance Commission review of some minor adjustments–I’m guessing if they do start this year it’s probably later in the year.
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do you have any idea what adjustments were made?
Maybe it’s 20 stories now
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Seeking relief from some streetscape level details that violated UDO.
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Don’t bring that negativity over here 
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