AvalonBay Communities’s new 475-unit apartment Arts District apartment complex will include a parking garage geared towards the future of Los Angeles transport, the L.A. Times reported.
AvalonBay said it designed the garage in anticipation of a time when ride-sharing services such as Lyft and self-driving cars will cut down on the number of parking spaces needed.
The 1,000-care garage, at 668 S. Alameda Street, will include street-level parking and will have level rather than inclined floors, so that the space can eventually be converted to shops and offices when cars can park themselves two or three deep in tighter spaces.
“We are designing it so in the future, if demand for parking decreases dramatically, we have the flexibility to go back to the city and ask for additional entitlements to change uses from parking to whatever,” Mark Janda senior vice president of development at AvalonBay, told the Times.
AvalonBay is not alone. Developers such as Rick Caruso, who is currently working with Google to prepare for self-driving cars, also anticipates a time when parking garages will be converted to apartments, restaurants and stores.
Andy Cohen, co-chief executive of architecture firm Gensler, predicts car ownership will peak around 2020 and then start to decline as consumers start to rely more on ride-sharing services. [LAT] — Subrina Hudson