THE RISE AND SPRAWL

A massive parking garage is under construction on McDermot Avenue East (between Rorie and Waterfront Drive), certifying this southeast corner of the Exchange District remains a dull wasteland for many years to come.

There will be the finger-waggers who like to remind people that there needs to be some room for parking. Indeed there does, but this looks like more than just some parking.

The issue is not whether there should be parking garages on downtown streets, the issue is scale. Plans for a parking structure that fronts onto this much of a street should never be permitted in a city that has even a passing interest in generating density and sidewalk life downtown. Residential and office buildings with no retail on the ground floor are dubious enough when built at this sprawling scale. Parking garages, necessary maybe, produce zero sidewalk activity and cannot easily adapt to new uses later on. All the architectural dressing-up in the world does not mitigate this. That is why if they must be built, they must be built small, and not come to dominate the landscape.

Does anyone want to live in a neighborhood with parking garages like this? Does anyone want to walk around streets like this?