Brooks + Scarpa Complete New Eco Upgrades To Gehry’s Santa Monica Parking Garages

After the green renovation of the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/gehrys-santa-monica-place-goes-green-with-leed-renovation/">Gehry-designed Santa Monica Place</a> into a fantastic open air mall, the surrounding infrastructure, especially the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/intexure-architects-transform-parking-garage-into-a-rooftop-zen-garden/">parking garages</a>, needed an overhaul. The city brought in <a href="http://inhabitat.com/sustainable-design-firm-pugh-scarpa-win-2010-aia-architecture-firm-award/">Brooks + Scarpa (formerly Pugh + Scarpa)</a> to design improvements for the Frank Gehry garages at Santa Monica Place Mall as well as eight other city owned parking structures surrounding the popular 3rd Street Promenade. The eco improvements included adding <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/prefab">prefabricated</a> cement board panels to the exterior of the garages as well as making the area more walkable and pleasant for pedestrians. New ground floor retail spaces were added to the garages, transforming them into dual purpose buildings. And soon, the garages will be topped with a 1,000 solar panel system to generate electricity for the complex.

The main upgrade to the garages was to clad the exterior in a new shade screen, providing privacy inside, shade as well as an a more attractive appearance.

A single mass-produced and repeatable panel made up of a series of cement board slats, which resembles shipping pallets, was used throughout the project.

Electric lighting amps up the parking garages at night.

Measuring approximately 10 feet by 16 feet and arranged in a slightly different position or orientation relative to each adjacent panel, the appearance seems organic and non-repeating.

Overall, the result is one that is aesthetically pleasing, visually diverse, shades the cars and makes the garages seem more like buildings than a place to park your car.

On the ground floor of the garages, a number of retail spaces were constructed to improve the street scape so the area surrounding the mall isn't such a dead zone.

Brooks + Scarpa also added a bike station to lock up your sweet cruiser, improved pedestrian access, signage and public art like a giant mosaic and trippy metal ball installation.

The parking garages are cleverly hidden now and blend in with the surrounding buildings.

The garages are also equipped with the infrastructure to handle a future rooftop canopy solar system to provide shade for the cars and electricity for the garages and some of the city's public buildings.

Bright red shade screens hide the pedestrian staircases.

Metal sculptural signage, by Cliff Garten Studio, marks the entrance to the garages.

The renovation of the garages is almost complete in this image.

Early rendering of the parking garage renovations.