In all of downtown, Potter and Greenberger said they identified only a single garage that they felt could serve as a model for the parking industry, located at the southwest corner of 20th and Walnut Streets. The quality they liked best about it is that it doesn't look like a garage. Instead of open decks, it has a full facade that is sympathetic to the buildings around it. Garages should be built underground. If free-standing garages are built, they should be small enough to blend discreetly into Philadelphia's streets.
Many small garages are preferable to a few behemoths.
Although city planners would agree with most of these recommendations, they differ with the foundation's preference for many small garages, said Debbie Schaaf, the city planner who is overseeing the commission's parking study. Schaaf has been counting cars in garages to determine how many parking spaces are needed in downtown Philadelphia. She hopes to finish the inventory by late spring and complete her analysis by the end of the year. Although the results are incomplete, she expects that the final report will show a significant increase in car ownership by downtown residents, up from 42 percent in 1990. Not all the new garage development has been in Center City.