NewEnergyNews SPECIAL: West Hollywood Previews The Future Of Parking

City of West Hollywood Celebrates Grand Opening of West Coast’s First Municipal Automated Garage; 200-space Automated Garage is Designed for Highly Efficient Use of Space

May 25, 2016 (City of West Hollywood)

The City of West Hollywood has opened the Left Coast’s first municipal automated garage. The solar-powered facility offers a robotic solution to the challenge of making vehicle parking more efficient.

Vehicles are dropped at one of its four entry/exit bays. The automated equipment, run by solar energy-generated electricity, move and store the cars while their drivers and passengers go on their way. This eliminates the lost time and increased fumes that come with today’s common search for a parking slot.

The automated system, designed, manufactured, and installed by Unitronics, also retrieves the parked vehicles and delivers them to the bays.

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The futuristic facility’s reduction of climate change-inducing emissions is expected to be equivalent to taking 92 cars off of the road each year or planting 67,000 trees.

Because the “robots” use space more efficiently, the garage requires a much smaller physical footprint than would a conventional parking structure with a similar 200-space capacity. The West Hollywood facility uses the 7,000-plus square feet of saved space for a Community Plaza and an entry service area available for community events.

At the height of the adjacent WeHo City Hall building, the LPA, Inc.-designed new building – constructed with sustainable materials made from recycled bags – matches the surrounding skyline.

Its entry/exit bays feature hand-painted murals by local artists Art of Chase, MONCHO1929, Bronwyn Lundberg, and Kim West. Inside, there is a fixed-art installation by renowned public artist Ned Kahn.

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The Community Plaza’s drought-tolerant landscaping brings trees, benches, and a water feature together in a tranquil space. A stage is available for events. The space features a large triptych art-banner installation, the collaboration of artist MONCHO1929 and WestHo City Poet Steven Reigns.

“We’re very excited about the completion of the Automated Garage,” said City of West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister. “It is located in an area of the City that has been in need of additional parking, and it will help to fill that need. The technology is amazing — and kind of fun, too! I drove in facing one way, but my car came out facing the other way ... how does it know?!” click here for more

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