Design

COMING SOON: Inclusive Streetscapes challenges practitioners and decision-makers to rethink how streets are planned, designed, built, operated, and maintained. Drawing on transportation practice and the perspectives of people with disabilities, this framework examines common streetscape elements through the lenses of accessibility, safety, usability, and human experience.

On October 13, IPMI’s Planning, Design, & Construction (PDC) Committee will host an interactive roundtable examining lessons learned from the deterioration of existing parking structures—not simply to understand what went wrong, but to consider how those lessons can improve the way parking facilities are designed, constructed, monitored, maintained, repaired, and adapted for the future.

A parking structure is not just a place to store cars. It is a long-term infrastructure asset exposed to water, chlorides, freeze-thaw cycles, vehicle loads, and daily traffic. The construction method chosen affects:

Parking structures are often approached as if they are just simplified buildings. I think that is the wrong starting point. They may look like buildings. They have columns, floors, stairs, elevators, lighting and sometimes a facade. But in practice, they behave more like exposed infrastructure. When we confuse these two categories, we underestimate what the building needs to endure.

Visitors to downtown San Luis Obispo, CA have a new place to park. The Cultural Arts District Parking Structure celebrated its grand opening in March by offering free parking for the first 28 days. With 396 new parking stalls and sweeping views of the surrounding Bishop and Cerro San Luis peaks, the new parking facility creates a gateway to the museum corridor of downtown as well as direct connection to the future home of the Repertory Theater. Visitors to the parking structure will discover decorative archways, mission tiling, enhanced light fixtures, a copper dome, terra cotta roofing and decorative screening that honors the Mission-style architecture of the Cultural Arts District. A gable designed into the Palm Street façade provides a canvas for a public art installation that will be selected through a city procurement process.

Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), the premier organization independently recognizing excellence in green business industry performance and practice globally, and the International Parking & Mobility Institute (IPMI), the world’s largest parking association, have renewed and updated a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for their joint program, Parksmart. Updating and extending this collaboration recognizes the importance of sustainable parking facility design and management to the built environment. It comes as an increasing number of projects have achieved/registered for the Parksmart program, recognizing the importance of sustainable parking facility design and management to the built environment.

Climate risk, particularly severe weather, is becoming an increasingly important factor in how parking and mobility infrastructure is designed and how vehicles are insured and protected. Hail is one of the costliest and most disruptive weather threats facing vehicle-centric infrastructure in the United States. As vehicles with panoramic glass roofs, advanced sensors, and EV components become increasingly technologically complex and expensive to repair, the financial impact of hail damage continues to grow. At the same time, insurers are responding with higher premiums, stricter underwriting, and more stringent requirements for proactive mitigation.

A Case Study on the Hawkeye Parking Ramp at the University of Iowa

Oneida County, New York, is dedicated to delivering exceptional healthcare services to its residents.

What role does leadership development play in creating resilient, future-ready teams in our industry?

Celebrating PDC in Parking & Mobility

The Inevitable Professional Cycle