The Santa Monica Civic Center garage provides 900 parking spaces throughout six above ground stories and 1 ½ below ground levels. Of those 900 spaces, 14 (or less than 2%) are devoted to electric vehicles with public electrical outlets. There’s also free bicycle storage available to “encourage alternate transportation modes.”
The design is from Moore Ruble Yudell Architects and Planners and James Mary O’Connor, AIA, principal with the firm, “is confident that his team had met both the aesthetic and sustainability challenges set forth by the city of Santa Monica to create this six-story solar-powered structure,” according to Environmental Design & Construction magazine.
The prospect of a parking garage attaining LEED has been called everything from a “commitment to sustainability” to a “deliciously silly story.” Somewhere in between those perspectives lies the quandary of this building. Most of us would agree that if we are going to continue to build parking structures, they should be as low impact as possible. However, the question that remains is how does shining the LEED light on a structure that claims its main purpose as housing gas-powered vehicles play into the green building picture?
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