Archinect - News

France now requires all large parking lots to be covered by solar panels

2022-11-11T08:43:00-05:00

In France, solar just got a huge boost from new legislation approved through the Senate this week that requires all parking lots with spaces for at least 80 vehicles – both existing and new – be covered by solar panels.

Starting on July 1, 2023, parking lots that have between 80 and 400 spaces will have five years to comply with the new measures. Those with more than 400 spaces will need to comply within three years, with at least half of the surface area of the parking lot needing to be covered in solar panels. Parking lots that accommodate trucks carrying heavy goods or parking areas in historic or protected areas are exempt from the measures.

This move is part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to multiply the amount of solar energy produced in France by 10. The initiative also aims to double the power from land-based wind farms. As reported by electrek, the government claims this plan could generate up to 11 gigawatts, which can power millions of homes.

California's inventory of disused strip malls may be an overlooked option to shore up its housing stock by 2030

2022-05-02T12:35:00-04:00

Converting empty or underutilized strip malls and shopping centers into mixed-use residential and retail developments could help solve California’s housing shortage crisis and allow stores to stay afloat amid the shift to online shopping, said housing experts and industry leaders during a panel at the Urban Land Institute’s spring meeting last week in San Diego. However, that transformation will require cities to change their land-use policies.

Greyfield land may be the most underutilized resource in the state’s harried attempt to create the more than 2.5 million housing units required to meet demands set forth by the Department of Housing and Community Development in March. A bill introduced last week by state rep Buffy Wicks would include them along with disused offices and environmentally unhealthy parking lot spaces in a zoning update that could allow developers to make relatively quick conversions into mixed-use sites with job-site provisions for apprenticeship employment.

With a portion of the state's population moving east, the measure has the most potential in embattled urban areas like LA or San Diego. According to a report from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, around 40% of the state’s 50 largest cities do not allow for residential development on designated commercial plots currently....

Utah’s vaunted 'walkable city' still has tens of thousands of parking spots

2022-04-04T19:04:00-04:00

“It’s not that no one has a car,” said Peter Kindel, an urban design and planning principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill who helped create the framework plan for the site that project overseers approved last year. “We’re suggesting it’s more than possible to live with one car to make that big-box [store] trip or go skiing. But for families and young people that are going to be part of the community, they won’t need that on a day-to-day basis.”

The 600-acre The Point development in Draper, Utah, will replace an aging prison complex and will include some 40,000 parking spaces — a typical figure for a community of its planned size of about 13,000 residents.

Previously on Archinect: A '15-minute' planned community is set to rise in Utah

A forthcoming mobility study to be presented to the Point of the Mountain State Land Authority by the transportation consultancy Sam Schwartz is aiming to reduce that number by half via a high-tech admixture of electric scooters, planned bikeways, car-sharing, and (potentially) a fleet of self-driving buses.

“We want to push the envelope,” Point of the Mountain State Land Authority Executive Director Alan Matheson told Bloomberg, “but we also need to be practical.”

The latest trend in luxury real estate? Bespoke automated parking

2019-09-23T12:59:00-04:00

“[Parking is] sort of becoming an expected amenity for a high-end condo,” said Andrew Bradfield, a principal of Orange Management, a developer that has installed automated garages in two Brooklyn condos: Waverly Brooklyn in Clinton Hill and the Symon in Downtown Brooklyn. “To not have parking hampers marketing.”

Despite having one of the best public transportation systems in the world, New York City's developers have taken to embracing bespoke and automated parking options as luxury building amenities in recent years. The spots can cost upwards of $200,000 per stall to rent, depending on the development.

The New York Times reports that Renzo Piano Building Workshop's 565 Broome SoHo, BIG's XI residences, and Robert A.M. Stern's 70 Vestry are among many recent Manhattan condo projects that offer "hefty amounts of accessory parking."

Parking Madness 2019: Which urban transformation will take home the trophy?

2019-03-25T18:19:00-04:00

This year’s parking crater tournament has us feeling something past contests never did: Hopeful. We asked readers for the best examples of surface parking lots turned dynamic urban places around the country. We got a great response, with some really exciting transformations. We had to eliminate a few contestants to whittle it down to the Sweet 16.

If you've enjoyed the America’s Sorriest Bus Stop contest, organized annually by Streetsblog, and are looking for an alternative 'Madness'-themed tournament this March, then this is for you: Parking Madness 2019 kicked off just a few days ago and pits 16 successful surface parking lot transformations in the U.S. and Canada against each other.

Image via Streetsblog USA

Fill in your brackets now with these hopeful contenders:

Kansas City
Minneapolis
Oakland
Atlanta
Houston
Boston
Pittsburgh
Portland
Providence
Austin
D.C. Pike
D.C. NoMa
Indianapolis
Toronto
Albuquerque
Tampa

Minneapolis' Downtown East development already crushed the Kansas City Power & Light District transformation in the first round, and Oakland's MacArthur BART Station is in the ring against Atlanta's Candler Park MARTA Station right now.

Which city is your bet to take home the coveted 'Most Improved Crater' award?

Atlanta struggles to trade parking lots for density

2016-06-02T14:12:00-04:00

"If you design for everyone to drive, then what will you get? Congestion." [...] “We really need to shift now, from a situation like this, where you have a heavy parking load associated with an apartment building in a very urban setting, to way less parking,” [...] "You really have to start with the density and less parking. If you don't, then you've lost your opportunity, because once you've built that infrastructure, it's so difficult to undo that."

More on the parking problem and pedestrian infrastructure: