Above Ground Parking Garages vs. Below Ground Parking Garages Downtown (place, Atlanta)

[MDAllstar]

What cites have mostly above ground parking garages?
What cites have mostly below ground parking garages under buildings?
Which do you prefer?
Which one is more urban?

[Denver111]

Mostly above ground- Chicago and most cities in the Midwest, Miami, most Sunbelt cities

Mostly below ground- NYC, DC and Boston

Mix- most other cities

[Chicago60614]

Most above ground here for the most part. Podiums set above the street downtown with retail at the sidewalk levels. Office buildings have parking that's tucked to the rear or sides somehow so you never seem to see the parking as you're walking down the streets. Helps a lot to have alleys.

Parking in the residential areas is mostly just above and behind the stores (if they're large enough to need a ramp).

Of course there are some huge areas of underground parking, just not a ton. Somewhat high water table with the lake.

All depends on how it's set up as far as if it's urban. Sprawling right on a corner is pretty ugly. Here they tend to hide them unless they're the mega ramps downtown that are 1/2 a city block square and up to 20 stories high.

[kidphilly]

A little of both in Philly. DC more than any other city utilizes the more expensive underground parking due to height restrictions.

EXIT ONLY -- ENTRANCE | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikewebkist/2356851485/ - broken link)

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[MDAllstar]

Originally Posted by Denver111

Mostly above ground- Chicago and most cities in the Midwest, Miami, most Sunbelt cities

Mostly below ground- NYC, DC and Boston

Mix- most other cities

NYC has those futuristic elevator car stacks too.

[memph]

Toronto has them mostly underground I think, often more than 5 floors down. I can only think of 5 that are above ground (Eaton Center, Richmond E, Lakeshore, 2 in Yorkville). I would not be surprised if the ones in Yorkville got redeveloped soon. Whenever a new condo is built, they dig a huge hole and put parking in there.

[Gateway Region]

I believe above ground parking garages look tacky, especially the enormous ones. I would prefer cities using underground garages and will support any urban planning concepts that add urbanity to a city.

[Newsboy]

About 5 years ago, Savannah tore down an unsightly 3-story above-ground parking deck in the City Market area and replaced it with a 4-level underground garage that stretches beneath 3 city blocks and has room for about 1,800 cars. Sitting atop the roof of the parking deck -- at street level -- is the new Ellis Square park, Avia Hotel and currently under construction, a new office tower. The lowest parking level, on the other hand, is at sea level. Two sets of pumps insure it doesn't flood. The whole thing is an amazing engineering feat.

[rnc2mbfl]

Miami's are clearly above ground because to be underground would really mean to be underwater.

And, to answer the other part of the question, both are urban because both replace surface parking lots.

[testa50]

Greatly prefer underground.

Unfortunately, all but a few in Atlanta are above ground.