Now that we know this thing isn't over I figured I would post a few pics of good and bad examples from my area.
When you live in an autocentric city with this -
Garages are necessary. The trick is to blend the garages in and allow them to serve multiple purposes and adapt over time as they become less and less necessary.
1) Terminus parking deck. My old parking deck last year. Master-planned development in a semi-urban vertical suburban office park called Buckhead. Buckhead CID has been working hard the past 2 years to make the area more walkable. This has included wider sidewalks, stricter design regulations, bike lanes, improved ped crossings, trees, a north entrance to the MARTA station, etc etc. Terminus was developed by Cousins between 2006 and 2009 and was at the forefront of the "transformation" of the area. It anchors the south end of the Buckhead CBD and sits prominently at the major intersection of Peachtree and Piedmont, so architectural appeal, sight lines, and precedent for new development were at the forefront.
There are 2 office buildings with over 1.2M SF, 137 sold out condos, and a 12 level deck...all over 70,000 SF of retail currently at 77% occupancy with several restaurants and retail tenants such as Poggen Pohl, a cosmetic dentist, a bridal shop and a Wolf/Sub-Zero showroom, Chik-Fil-A, Cantina, Bricktops, a bank, etc etc.
The BREEZEway between the deck and Terminus 100 office building now hosts events and is constantly activated. It can be very breezy though (that is something they failed to plan for in the direction the breezeway faces).
My photos (3 years old):
From Terminus' Facebook site:
A fashion event...
One of the restaurants (a fancy sushi place with prices that would SCARE Jax natives use to paying Jax sushi prices)
From Terminus website
http://www.terminusatlanta.com/
From Atlanta Skyrise Blog (Cousins scrapping 3rd office tower so Crescent Resources can put up rental low-rises)
http://www.atlantaskyriseblog.com/
2) 12th and Midtown. This is another master-planned development in Midtown by Daniel/Selig/Metlife/Northwestern Mutual/Canyon Johnson and is my favorite mixed-use development in the South. Of course every building sits on a parking pedestal. Most of these pics are old and the back of 1010 has long been leased to restaurants Ri Ra, Ra, and Piola. Now STK and Cucina Asellina join those restaurants, Bank of America, and Crate and Barrel (CB2) as retail tenants and Cafe Intermezzo and Mi Cocina will be opening this fall on the corners of Peachtree and 11th, activating the main frontage a little more (and the buildouts are going to be phenominal). Apple looked at going in a few years back and may reconsider within a year if current leasing picks up (rents here are $45-60+/SF, some of the most expensive retail in the city).
My really old pics (these buildings are truly some of the ony "big city" type buildings in the South, and so when fully built out and leased at the ground level this area will feel pretty cosmopolitan...and tall!)
Note how the important/Peachtree side is done pretty decently, and the garage is more noticeable in the back. Perhaps with the Jax development it's important to "pick a side". Which side should be the front (river or Bay St?) and how is the garage going to fit in and be concealed as a result.
The back of 1010 with construction in foreground (now 3 floors up half a year later...taking forever while a 23 floor building just went up a block away in the same time frame).
Newish photo I took this Spring where you can kind of see back. Garage facade has detailing and storefronts at ground level. Across the street are 2 very active bars/restaurants.
Phase I, II and III. There are 5 phases. Parking pedestals clearly seen in this visual mock-up.
Phase 4.
Maybe this is Phase 4. All still conceptual but the rumor is Daniel/Metlife want to start soon.
Interior of one of the restaurants.
OK, some Miscellaneous.
Phase I of master-planned Allen Plaza...the front. This is meh, ok, but at least you can't tell you're looking at a garage.
From the highway the world's largest LED screen flashes video and ads at you. It conceals a garage for the W Downtown Hotel/Res and 45 Allen Plaza office.
These are obnoxious pedestals. At least they are activated at ground level (well Viewpoint only has 2 tenants, one of which is Sprint). Spire seems to be leased-up or mostly leased-up at ground level and is decently inviting. There are Italian cypress covering the garage from the Peachtree side. This is what I think what NOT to do, though.
And Streets of Buckhead...now finally underway again.
Old render.
New render from this year's ICSC (they had full scale model, too).
The base of this Atlantic Station office building features an international office furniture designer, manufacturer and marketer. The garage is built into the building seamlessly like Bank of America downtown.
