CENTURY STATION PARKING GARAGE - Roanoke

C I T Y M A R K E T
R O A N O K E, V I R G I N I A
cen tury STATION pa r k i ng ga r age
cen tury station pa r k i ng ga r age
Existing Century
Station Parking Garage
OBSERVATION:
Renovations and additions to the Century
Station Parking Garage should add desirable
downtown housing, create anchor retail, increase
the number of parking spaces, and enhance the
overall City Market area.
Discussion:
The Century Station Parking Garage, located
next to Fire Station #1, is one of two special
building related projects in
the city’s scope of study.
Originally, Century
Station Parking Garage was
designed with sufficient
structural support to allow
for four additional floors
of housing or related use
to be added. Also, there is
undeveloped retail space
on the ground floor of the
building along Church
Avenue. During the 1980’s,
the established design
program made access a
priority; it also made car
circulation as convenient as
possible especially along
Church Avenue.
As a result, the main entrance ramp was
located in what should be the prime retail corner
of the building. When the building is viewed
from Market Street approaching Church Avenue,
the first thing a person sees is the concrete entry
ramp for cars entering the parking deck. This is
not inviting for street level pedestrian use, but it
is, in fact, convenient for cars. Since charrette
participants who reacted to this situation felt
a change should be considered, a significant
circulation transformation is proposed in the
study.
Several issues concerning the design of the
shop fronts were raised during the study. The
existing storefronts are not as good as they could
be for urban retail. The design of the façade of
the building was also reviewed in relationship to
its context.
It was the general opinion of the design
team and the charrette participants that the
architecture of the Century Station Parking
Garage could be more harmonious. It was
perhaps a good design when it was constructed,
but it does not compare favorably with more
recent designs for parking garages in historic
places like Charleston, South Carolina.
When looking at the facades of newer
garages in historic settings, it is quite interesting
to see how effectively a balance is created
between old and new using the historic styles
of adjacent buildings in lieu of a contemporary
genre.
The team studied existing floor plans for
Century Station Parking Garage. The existing
plan shows the parking garage entry ramps, the
two and a half parking bays, the center bay and
Continued
Existing entrance to
the garage.
Existing view of City
Market
Blank, unappealing
wall along parking
garage
© 2006 Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company; for illustrative purposes only
Revision Date: 03-03-06; 0517-Booklet.indd
C2.1