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Like many others, I want cities that are less dependent on cars and streets that are as walkable as those in Europe. But that kind of transformation will take decades of investment, policy, and political will. In the meantime, we still have to deal with the reality of today's urban fabric.

Parking garages are about as utilitarian as architecture gets. They are typically little more than stacked concrete slabs supported by a repetitive grid of columns, each floor optimized to fit as many vehicles as possible. Yet it is precisely this apparent banality that makes the typology interesting. When a building seems to have so little architectural potential, it creates an opportunity for designers to challenge this assumption.

Across North America, a growing number of parking garage projects are doing exactly that. Some are entirely new buildings, while others adapt existing structures. They remind us that good architecture isn't reserved for museums, libraries, or concert halls. Sometimes it can emerge from the most ordinary building types.

Herzog and De Meuron, 279 1111 Lincoln Road Miami Beach

At first glance, 1111 Lincoln Road looks almost unfinished. Herzog & de Meuron leave the concrete frame completely exposed, treating the structure itself as the architecture rather than hiding it behind a decorative façade. The project combines parking with retail, event space, and public gathering areas, using unusually generous sfloor heights to make the garage feel open, civic, and strangely elegant.

Frank Gehry, New World Symphony

Designed by Frank Gehry as part of the New World Symphony campus, the Pennsylvania Avenue Parking Garage takes a more restrained approach than many of his better-known projects. A woven metal mesh wraps the concrete structure, filtering daylight, allowing natural ventilation, and transforming into a glowing LED façade after dark.

IwamotoScott's, City View Garage

The City View Garage is less about the structure itself and more about its skin. Three different designers were invited to create independent façades, turning an otherwise straightforward parking garage into a public design experiment. IwamotoScott's contribution uses folded perforated aluminum fins that shift in appearance as you move past the building, creating depth while allowing the garage to remain naturally ventilated.

WRNS Studio, Mission Bay Parking Structure

The Mission Bay Parking Structure rejects the repetitive appearance of the typical parking garage. Instead of a uniform concrete box, each elevation is treated differently, using sculpted surfaces, deep recesses, and perforated aluminum panels to respond to light, and views. The pixelated façade references California's redwood forests, giving the building a distinct identity while still providing the natural ventilation required for an open-air garage.

Danze Blood Architects, T3 Parking Structure

Built into a steep hillside in Austin, the T3 Parking Structure uses the site's topography as a key part of its design. A helical circulation ramp wraps through the centre of the garage, while a concrete frame supports steel screens that allow climbing vines to gradually cover the exterior. The project is topped with a planted green roof that manages stormwater while creating habitat for native vegetation and birds.

Rapp and Rapp, Michigan Theatre Parking Garage

Originally opened in 1926 as one of Detroit's grandest movie palaces, the Michigan Theatre found an unlikely second life as a parking garage after decades of decline. Rather than demolishing the structure, the soaring Renaissance Revival interior was adapted to accommodate three levels of parking while much of the original ornamentation was left intact. The result is one of the most unusual examples of adaptive reuse, where cars now occupy a space once built for concerts, films, and thousands of spectators.

Mandeville and Berge, Sinking Ship Parking Garage

Few parking garages are as recognizable as Seattle's Sinking Ship. Built on a steep sloping site, its wedge-shaped form creates the illusion that the structure is sinking into the street, giving rise to its nickname. Originally intended as just one piece of a much larger redevelopment, the garage remains a distinctive landmark and a reminder that even the constraints of an awkward site can produce memorable architecture.

BNIM, 10th & Wyandotte Garage

The defining feature of BNIM's 10th & Wyandotte Garage is its ceramic façade, developed in collaboration with Kansas City artist Andy Brayman. Nearly 600 custom ceramic inserts are mounted within the exterior screen, creating a textured surface inspired by fossil forms while maintaining the natural ventilation required for the garage. Rather than relying on paint or graphics, the project gives the building its identity through the material itself.

Christian Kerez, Four Car Parks

As one of two bonus inclusions, one of my favourite parking garage projects from outside North America is Christian Kerez's Four Car Parks in Muharraq, Bahrain. Rather than stacking flat floors connected by ramps, the buildings are formed by continuously curving concrete slabs that touch and separate, creating a single uninterrupted path for cars to move through the structure. Designed as part of Bahrain's Pearling Path redevelopment, the garages also create elevated public spaces and viewpoints within the dense history of the city.

Jaspers-Eyers Architects, University Clinic Saint-Luc Parking

As my second bonus pick from outside North America, the University Clinic Saint-Luc Parking Garage in Brussels turns a highly technical building into something sculptural. A flowing white concrete shell wraps the open-air structure, softening the scale of the garage while providing shade and natural ventilation. Rather than repeating a flat façade across every level, the continuous ribbon gives the building a sense of movement that changes depending on where you view it from.

Until We Need Them No More

Whether you love or hate parking garages, they are going to remain part of our cities for the foreseeable future. If we're going to keep building them, there's no reason they can't contribute something beyond storing cars. As cities continue to evolve, it will be interesting to see how architects keep rethinking even the most ordinary building types. Maybe one day the parking garage itself will become obsolete, but until then, it doesn't have to be forgettable.