Green spaces in cities provide opportunities to improve the local environment, and parking garages can incorporate greenery to support this. Greenery allows garages to enhance sustainability, aesthetics, and community involvement. Here is more information on how parking garages that integrate green spaces are beneficial:
Improve Aesthetics
Parking garages are often in high-density urban areas, so there may be many buildings around the garage and few green spaces. Including greenery in garages adds a visual appeal that breaks up the man-made materials and structures. This may draw people to use the garage. Some aesthetically pleasing green spaces and their benefits include:
- Green Facades: These allow vines to grow on garage exteriors, providing a natural look and feel instead of showing a wall of concrete or brick.
- Green Screens: Screens can include lightweight panels and metal grids installed along open walls. Vines grow on the screens and provide shade to the garage interior while still allowing ventilation.
- Planter Greenery: Trees and bushes in planters allow greenery to be dispersed around the garage, which is helpful for facilities with no surrounding soil.
- Rooftop Gardens: A rooftop garden or park provides a large green space on the top of a garage. This allows garage owners to enhance the aesthetics of the infrastructure with grass, trees, and flowers.
Promote Eco-Friendly Solutions
Urban environments create heat islands, where infrastructure, such as buildings, absorbs heat from the sun. The heat is then released and increases the surrounding temperature; plants help reduce this effect by absorbing the sun’s rays instead. Parking garages can use green spaces to provide a cooling effect. Trees and vine canopies enable garages to have shading, and they reduce the amount of solar radiation that reaches beneath the greenery.
Leaves and other plants reduce the amount of air pollutants. Parking garages that experience frequent use benefit from this, since they may have increased amounts of gas emissions in an enclosed space. Greenery removes carbon dioxide, and people are able to have a healthier breathing environment.
Parked cars benefit from tree shading, since the temperature inside will be reduced. People may be able to spend less time cooling their car down when they exit the garage, which helps to reduce carbon emissions. Garage owners are able to utilize fewer energy resources when they incorporate green spaces in the facility. During hot summers, the cooling effect from the greenery means owners won’t need to use the AC as much to lower the temperature. This may help reduce the need to frequently maintain the AC system, and it allows garage owners to spend the resources on other areas.
Support Community
Green spaces in urban areas allow residents and workers to experience nature during a busy week; they avoid having to travel far to relax in a natural environment. Employees can park in a garage close to their work, and then visit a rooftop garden during a lunch break. Adding rooftop gardens or parks to garages provides a space for a building’s occupants to gather. Groups of people are able to use the green space to have picnics or lawn games. Garages could also hold seasonal events, such as farmers’ markets, or support local vendors by providing vegetable gardens. People who would otherwise spend their time indoors are able to connect with other residents or employees in a natural environment.
Use Parking Garages today
Green spaces in parking garages provide a unique way to have nature in areas with dense infrastructure. Garages with limited footprint space are able to have an enhanced appearance with green roofs and vertical gardens. Greenery also may improve the safety of pedestrians using the garage since plants and soil absorb excess water from rain or melted snow; this helps prevent water pooling on pavement. To support your local environment and community, use garages that incorporate green spaces.