House of Cars
October 2009 National Building Museum Online
Parking a car is something many of us do several times a day. Yet we do not always consider the impact of parked cars on our built environment. The National Building Museum's new exhibition, House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage, explores the integration of parking into our cities and towns over the past century and invites us to look more closely at parking issues as we plan our future communities.
The exhibition features a wide selection of photographs and architectural drawings documenting the changing structures we have built to store cars, from the 1905 Garage de la Société Ponthieu in Paris to a LEED-platinum certified sustainable garage in Florida built just this year. Objects as varied as a wind-up parking garage toy, a 1930s guidebook advertising safe parking garages for African Americans, a 1950s parking garage time stamp machine, and a translucent model of a proposed parking structure in Chicago, as well as art photography and sculpture inspired by the parking garage, round out the display.
We are all familiar with movie scenes in which a foreboding parking garage is the stage for mischief, secrecy, and even violence. A series of clips from Hollywood films and television shows puts together such scenes with more humorous treatments. Historic and contemporary film clips featured throughout the exhibition bring us into the world of the 1920s automobile factory, through a 1950s spiral ramp garage, and animations of new automated garage technologies.
Throughout the exhibition, visitors are encouraged to think about the significant, yet often overlooked, role that parking garages have had in the layout of our cities and towns, as we look to creating new types of links between transportation and the built environment.
Exhibition tours: Monday-Sunday at 2:00pm (based on docent availability), starting November 13th
About the Presenting Sponsor
The National Parking Association, established in 1951, is a network of companies representing all segments of the parking industry, including private operators, parking consultants, colleges and universities, airports, municipalities, parking authorities, hospital and medical centers, developers and others, along with industry vendors.
NPA's mission is to serve as a resource to the parking industry and our members by offering access to quality education, networking opportunities, products and services.
"We are delighted to be partnering with the National Building Museum on this important exhibit," said Martin L. Stein, president. "While most of us take parking structures for granted, the history of parking is full of innovation and technological advances. This exhibition will celebrate those advances and their impact on our day-to-day lives."
