Farmhouse Plans: Garage Designs

Garage Designs

The parking garage, often considered a dull and forgettable structure, is a crucial element of building design and urban planning.

Architect Shannon Sanders McDonald discussed "Designing for Man, Machine and Movement: The Parking Garage." McDonald discussed the parking garage as it relates to the larger issues of how we move in space and its future implications for architecture, the environment, planning, transportation and their interrelationships. The discussion covered the evolution of the parking garage, starting with the late 1890s.

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Shannon McDonald, a licensed architect in Georgia and Illinois, is the author of a new book published by the Urban Land Institute, "The Parking Garage: Design and Evolution of a Modern Urban Form." A 1992 graduate of the Yale University School of Architecture, McDonald assisted Carol Ross Barney in designing the award-winning Little Village Academy in Chicago and has worked on numerous other public and transportation-related projects. She has given presentations and has written many articles on issues related to parking and movement.