A multistorey car park[1][2] (Commonwealth English) or parking garage (American English),[1] also called a multistorey,[3] parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck, or indoor parking, is a building designed for car, motorcycle and bicycle parking in which parking takes place on more than one floor or level. The first known multistorey facility was built in London in 1901 and the first underground parking was built in Barcelona in 1904 (see history).[1] The term multistorey (or multistory) is almost never used in the US, because almost all parking structures have multiple parking levels. Parking structures may be heated if they are enclosed.
Design of parking structures can add considerable cost for planning new developments, with costs in the United States around $28,000 per space and $56,000 per space for underground (excluding the cost of land), and can be required by cities in parking mandates for new buildings.[4] Some cities such as London have abolished previously enacted minimum parking requirements.[5] Minimum parking requirements are a hallmark of zoning and planning codes for municipalities in the US. (States do not prescribe parking requirements, while counties and cities can).[6]
- ^ a b c "parking garage – English meaning". Cambridge English Dictionary.
- ^ car park | Meaning & Definition for UK English | Lexico.com. Archived from the original on 25 September 2016.
- ^ "multistorey – English meaning". Cambridge English Dictionary.
- ^ Margolies, Jane (7 March 2023). "Awash in Asphalt, Cities Rethink Their Parking Needs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
- ^ "How not to create traffic jams, pollution and urban sprawl". The Economist. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
- ^ Parking Structures by Mary S. Smith, et al. ISBN 0-7923-7213-1