Posted by We’ve got driver-less cars, hover boards (not the kind we want but still), and now the city has a robotic garage that’s doing all the work so your parking experience is hassle-free.
The first municipal robot parking garage built on the West Coast had its grand opening Tuesday, May 24 in West Hollywood for a project that originally broke ground in March 2014.
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So how does it work?
Drivers park their car in one of four ground-level entry bays, get their ticket, and the car is then transported to an open parking space and brought back down when you present the ticket.
Here’s a video demonstrating the process:
Since there’s no need for ramps or driveways and the cars can be stack-parked, the building can hold 200 cars, three times what the previous structure on that lot held.
Each of the four bays has a hand-painted mural by artists Kim West, Art of Chase, Bronwyn Lundberg, and MONCHO1929. The garage features a large glass pane where curious people can watch as mechanical shuttles carry vehicles in and out of bays. The window also has a fixed-art installation by renowned public artist Ned Kahn, with a grid of large clear marbles that reflect moving parts inside the garage.
The eco-friendly structure contains roof-mounted photovoltaic solar panels, features the use of a sustainable material made from recycled grocery bags, and uses drought-tolerant landscaping. The lack of circling cars also means a decrease in CO2 emissions that’s the equivalent of taking 92 cars off the road, according to CurbedLA.
The robotic garage takes up 7,000 less square feet than a normal garage of the same capacity, and in this case the space savings was used for a Community Plaza, a park-like space with built-in benches, tress, and a water feature. The plaza contains a stage for community events and holds a large-scale triptych art-banner installation, a collaboration with artist MONCHO1929 and WeHo City Poet Steven Reigns.
The building cost approximately $18 million to construct and the city paid for it using issued bonds, according to WeHoville.
“It’s a clean, green, parking machine,” Councilmember John D’Amico said, “Once again, WeHo brings technology and convenience to our way of life, expanding parking options for our residents, neighborhood businesses, and City Hall visitors.”
[h/t: LAist]
Virginia Isaad is an L.A.-based journalist who has written for Los Angeles magazine and Angeleno magazine among others. She's lived in the San Fernando Valley since she was five and loves exploring DTLA as much as a day spent at the beach in Malibu. Follow her @virginiaisaad
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