There's an alternate world where Dallas doesn't exist. So, while Dallas technically still physically exists and is shown on maps and such, it still exists in a way that people would normally think of as a city, where people live, work, and play. It doesn't exist in form. All that stuff is gone: homes, office buildings, concert venues, shopping malls. There is one large parking lot at the location.
How did this come about? As the region's population grew and that population became more dependent on cars, the demand for parking skyrocketed. Eventually, the parking lot became crowded every time I used it. Dallas has become a place where commuters from the suburbs flock to park in the morning to ride shuttles to suburban jobs.
Dallas was spared this fate by a simple yet innovative technology: parking. Instead of parking in endless parking lots, why not try parking on top of each other? The elegant simplicity of this idea has changed the landscape of Dallas for half a century. Rather than covering literally everything, the parking lot will only take up what appears to be half of Dallas' land area, and the other half will be developed into buildings that give people a reason to park.
But while all parking lots serve an important purpose, they are not all created equal. Like any form of architecture, parking lots can be inspired, derived, made into works of art, or disrupted. Again, this isn't to say that less original parking isn't great in its own right. These are still much more impressive feats of engineering than horizontal compartments. It's simply saying that some people contribute more to the history and spirit of Dallas than others. With that in mind, we salute the 10 parking spots we've determined to be the best in Dallas.
10. 24-Hour Fitness Garage, Downtown Renowned urbanist Jane Jacobs powerfully extolled the virtues of mixed-use development. The death and life of America's great cities But developers, especially those in the auto-crazy Southwest, were slow to embrace her ideas. The planner of the parking garage at the southeast corner of downtown's Harwood and San Jacinto streets pioneered mixed-use development downtown less than 20 years after Jacobs published his book. His first floor of the building (i.e. his 100-yard end along Harwood, where there is no parking) is a culinary specialty store. Garage users can enjoy local delicacies such as Quizno's sandwiches and Dickey's BBQ while being protected from prying pedestrians and sunlight thanks to deep setbacks from the sidewalk. But there's more to this building than just surface parking and groceries. There is also an elevated parking lot that occupies the second to fourth floors. The 5th to 8th floors are all parking lots. Next up is the big reveal on the 9th floor. 24 hour fitness. In short, it's a great place to work out with a brisket sandwich and a mug of sweet tea.
9. Love Field Airport Garage A, Northwest Dallas Thanksgiving a year ago was a nightmare for Love Field. With last month's release from the Wright Amendment, passenger numbers surged more than expected, overwhelming airport parking lots. Vacationers found themselves wandering endlessly around the property in search of free space. Ultimately, Love Field will become a parking mecca when the new $131 million, 5,000-space parking garage opens in 2018, but city officials said Love Field He didn't have to wait three years to start playing the parking game. In addition to providing shuttles to off-site parking, the airport has renovated Garages A and B into his two most technologically sophisticated garages. Ten electronic signs are now strategically placed throughout the airport grounds to provide travelers with up-to-date information on the number of parking spaces available in each garage. It's like Twitter about parking.
8. The Shoppes at Park Lane in north Dallas The developers of the garage at San Jacinto and Harwood streets may have pioneered the bold combination of parking and other uses, but in 2009 the Shops at Park Lane The concept reached its apotheosis in Dallas when it first opened. Rather than being limited to a gym and a few restaurants, the developers have created a completely self-sufficient civilization. Find shelter in a luxury condo, dining at Whole Foods Market, clothing at retailers like Nordstrom Rack, education at the Dallas Museum of Art, or employment in office space in a development, all within the reach of a city street. You can get it without any hassle. There's also bowling. Surrounding all this like a tight concrete cocoon is a ring of parking garages. The most impressive of them is connected to the Park Lane DART station.
7. Victory Park, Victory North Parking Lot
When historians look back in time and try to pinpoint the inflection point when Victory Park transformed from the blight of depopulation through urban planning and investment into a thriving urban district, they almost certainly focus on 2012. will guess. At that time, the city refused to admit defeat and canceled the project. They lost hundreds of millions of dollars and boldly funneled $34.8 million in future tax revenue into the Victory North Parking Lot. The garage, which faces the west side of the American Airlines Center, consolidates much of the surface parking that previously precluded most human activity onto a modest site, freeing up other real estate for new development. This once moribund neighborhood is now in the midst of an apartment boom, Tom Thumb is slated to move in nearby, and Heard's Rock Café seems to be getting more lively every year. Even if the chorus of Victory Park opponents is still attacking Victory as a failure of urban planning, at least they won't be heard over the construction noise.
6. Arboretum Parking in East Dallas The Dallas Arboretum is in a difficult location. On the one hand, the shores of White Rock Lake are an ideal setting for a world-class botanical garden. On the other hand, the lake is always crowded with people. Solving this dilemma requires careful planning. For example, notice that the arboretum entrance faces toward Garland Road, on the other side of the lake. It also rightly resisted demands that the arboretum link the entrance to White Rock's popular running trail with a 400-meter trail, and instead buy land on the other side of Garland Road and dig a tunnel beneath it. Also note that he built a $30 million garage. . Strategy aside, this garage is an architectural gem, with its sandstone façade and bits of metalwork capturing the soul of Dallas' original Blackland prairie. It may possibly be the most respectable parking lot in the city.
5. Arts District, Hall Arts Parking Lot
Before the Dallas Arts District was built, it was home to the Hall Arts Parking Garage. It was built in 1986, two years after the Dallas Museum of Art opened, but the Sasaki master plan for this area was still just a glimmer in Dallas' eyes, but it didn't look like much. , was just a driveway set off from Ross Street. Then it disappears underground. But it has opened up a whole new demographic of parkers to a previously neglected corner of downtown. Consider the thousands of symphony enthusiasts, opera buffs, and visual arts enthusiasts who park their valet cars in this unassuming space. And you have to wonder. Can the Arts District survive without this parking infrastructure? Highly doubtful.
4. Uptown's Richards Group If Silicon Valley's work culture has taught us anything, it's that creative types need creative parking spaces. Kudos to Richards Group for incorporating this lesson into their new headquarters. For years, the advertising agency occupied an office tower at Central Expressway and Northwest Highway, offering standard parking in the form of a six-story garage. When Stan Richards decided to move his company closer to the city center and chose land adjacent to the west entrance to the CityPlace DART station, he knew a new parking paradigm was needed. So rather than dig underground or build a separate garage in his 20th-century fashion, the company built in parking. Inside the building itself. Although you can't tell from the seamless glass facade, the entire bottom half of the building is a parking garage, with office space stacked above it. To a layman, this may seem foolish. Wouldn't all the exhaust from the garage below waft into Richards' group's offices, depriving employees of oxygen and damaging the creative process? Judging by the continued freshness of the company's Chick-fil-a “EAT MOR CHIKIN” ad campaign, it's clear this isn't actually happening.
3. Preston Center Parking Lot, North Dallas Preston Center is proof that parking doesn't have to be 10 stories tall to be great. Take advantage of the one at Preston Center. Only two stories tall, it has a purposeful elegance that captures the spirit of Dallas circa 1955 better than any other architecture. Built to service the luxury shopping center sandwiched between Dallas and University Park, it is characterized by its clean angles and unadorned concrete. The façade and almost non-existent subdued lighting, not to mention the complex entry and exit systems that keep the vehicles moving in a breathtaking automotive ballet, make it an impressive piece of mid-century modern parking design. . It's almost a miracle that it has survived 60 years in Go-Go Dallas, a city that always seems to be chasing bigger, newer, shiny things, but that miracle may not last long. . Developers are eyeing construction of hotels and luxury apartments.
2. Binkley Parking Lot, SMU
We know, we know: This is in University Park, not Dallas, so technically it shouldn't even be on this list. But come on. Examples of elaborate parking architecture dot the Hilltop, just because dead old men drew the Dallas-Park City line on the MKT Railroad tracks (now the Katy Trail) rather than on Lovers Lane. It would be a crime not to include even a single example. Binkley Car Park is a great example, but only one example. While many institutions are content with modernist designs of exposed concrete, SMU aimed for a classic look to match the campus' predominant red brick motif. In doing so, no expense was spared. Note the architectural flourishes, including his two circular towers on the upper floors, the thrilling and unexpected “X” across the railing, and the stunning etching of the iconic Dallas Hall. What better place to store Dad's girlfriend's BMW? (Spoiler: No)
1. AT&T Parking Lot, Downtown
On the front page of the August 3, 1953 edition, under the heading about the communist blockade of East Berlin: dallas morning news announced important local news. “5 Level Garage Opening Set.” The structure was relatively modest by today's standards, with just five stories and a capacity of 305 cars. Although decades too late to qualify as Dallas' first parking garage, this project ushered in the modern parking era in Dallas. This was a seminal moment in the career of developer Trammell Crow, a previously unknown warehouse developer. “Aside from the parking lot built by the bank, this is the first parking lot built since 1936,” Crow boasted to the newspaper. But this won't be the last. Crowe's project was at the forefront of a parking boom in which the number of parking spaces downtown exploded from 17,500 in 1953 to about 70,000 today. Unfortunately, this special piece of history, which occupied much of the block bounded by Field, Wood, Accardo, and Jackson Streets, has been lost. Good news: In the early 1980s, it was replaced with something even grander, a 13-story, 400,000-square-foot behemoth now owned and operated by AT&T.
