“House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage,” National Building Museum
Courtesy Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Exhibit Despite—or because of—its ubiquity, the parking garage doesn’t get much love. Decried by Smart Growth-ers and aesthetes, it’s taken for granted by everyone else. But “House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage,” the first major exhibition devoted to the typology, reveals a 100-year history marked by innovations such as the D’Humy ramp system (shown above), which introduced split-level floors to maximize spaces back in 1918. The show at the National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C., includes parking designs by luminaries such as Bertrand Goldberg, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Santiago Calatrava. Through July 11, 2010. nbm.org
