Parking: Details for the Garage

New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

Once the garage placement on the lot has been settled, and the spaces immediately around the garage have been studied for their social and technical performance, it remains to design the garage itself. Two aspects are discussed here. Some are essentially prosthetic or mitigating design strategies that help compensate for defects of placement. Others are good and useful whether or not the garage is optimally located and oriented.

When it is unavoidable that a garage directly face the enfronting street ("front-loaded"), and it must have more than a single parking bay, then garage doors  literally come to the fore as an issue. In a two-bay garage, having two separate garage door openings is  much superior to one wider opening. First, the smaller opening proportion is closer to vertical, more like the windows on the house. The overall composition to which the ensemble of openings contributes is thereby more unified and harmonious. House and garage integrate better. Second, the doublewide garage door is both heavier and  intrinsically more prone to racking, especially when it is on a motor-driven overhead track opener.