West Hollywood will host a “topping-off ceremony” on Tuesday to celebrate a construction milestone for its automated garage and community plaza project at City Hall, popularly known as the “robo garage.”
The city broke ground on construction last March. Now the concrete exterior of the building is complete. Construction is anticipated to continue through late Fall 2015.
The topping-off ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 10 a.m. at City Hall, located at 8300 Santa Monica Blvd. at Sweetzer. Validated parking will be available at Kings Road Municipal Parking Structure, located at 8383 Santa Monica Blvd. at Kings Road.
The event will feature comments from members of the West Hollywood City Council and will include representatives from the design and construction firms working on the project. It will also include a beam-signing, refreshments and a site tour. Because tours will take place on an active construction site, the city is advising participants to wear sturdy closed-toe shoes. No high heels, open-toe shoes, or sandals will be permitted. Reasonable accommodations will be made for sidewalk participation for people with accessibility issues.
The $18 million robo garage project includes a 200-space parking garage that will match the height of the existing three-story City Hall building and a 25-foot wide community plaza between the two buildings. The structure is called a robo garage because of its ability to take one’s car and automatically park it without human intervention
The structure will contain four entry bays and will feature a large glass window facing east toward Sweetzer Avenue where people can watch as mechanical shuttles carry vehicles in and out of bays. The design includes roof-mounted photovoltaic solar panels and sustainable material made from recycled grocery bags as well as drought-tolerant landscaping.
There will also be a fixed art installation by Ned Kahn, a renowned public artist, whose concept consists of a grid of large glass marbles that will reflect the moving parts inside the garage.
The automated garage is designed by LPA Inc. based in Irvine. The mechanical system that stores and retrieves vehicles is designed by Unitronics, an international leader in automated parking systems. The structure is being built by T.B. Penick & Sons Inc., a San Diego-based contractor that has built numerous parking structures and private and municipal buildings around Southern California.
During construction, City Hall visitor parking is located at the Kings Road Municipal Parking Structure. Parking validations for City Hall visitors are available at the City Hall lobby reception desk. In addition, for people who need assistance, there is a free wheelchair-accessible shuttle called City Hall Link, which runs weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. between the Kings Road Structure and City Hall. (City Hall is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
Though this does cause an incredible amount, this has to be one of the coolest garages that I have ever seen.I hope they see this all the way through!
“The West Hollywood Community Service Center and Parking” was advertised and sold to the public in a high gloss brochure as costing $12 million dollars, I still have the PDF version.
Oddly the “Community Service Center” part was forgotten and the price tag adjusted to the current $18 million. A 50% increase so far. Operation and maintenance (at least $500.000 per year) are not included.
The city hall talking point is that the garage will generate income which will cover the bond payments. To me that translates into: Don’t worry, we will get YOU people to pay off the loan.”
It will take decades to pay this thing off with parking fees. My guess is that most who park there will be staff or will get their parking comped. There’s almost no nightlife in the area so the parking price would have to be cheap or people won’t even use it. Add in the cost of upkeep and constant repair and it’s just an expensive and worthless toy.
Interesting that as far back as 2007 and up through 2010, this project was called The West Hollywood Community Service Center and Parking. It was supposed to be a parking structure with community rooms on top and a bridge connecting it to City Hall. In the city’s newsletter it was referred to as, and I quote, “one stop shopping for community service.” Then, without public input, the community service portion of the project was gone. It is suspected that this was done because the ultimate goal of the City is to move City Hall to San Vicente and SM BLVD.,… Read more »
Pork and Barrel spending splurge by the city and its well connected friends
City council is in such a need to show the world how advanced and urban they are…no price is too high. This garage is a status thing. No one will use this garage other than people who work in the building. No one going to a restaurant or shopping will bother with the hassle it poses. They really should stop the building of this now before the electrical guts are put in. If they do finish…I cant wait until the city starts getting car repair bills and/or lawsuits.
Google Unitronics – interesting reading: “Another malfunction today at Hoboken’s automated garage More trouble at Hoboken’s automated garage! A little after midnight today, the parking elevator at the automated parking garage at 916 Garden Street malfunctioned. The elevator is used to move cars to and from their parking spots in the fully automated “robotic” garage. A blue Toyota was on the elevator at the time and both the car and the driver were stuck on the elevator, according to Captain Anthony Falco of the Hoboken police. Hoboken police were called to the scene, where they had to pull the driver… Read more »
@Todd Bianco- agreed. $18 million is a lot for 200 spaces. Don’t think people will care to watch cars being moved. It’s kind of like watching paint dry.
I have two questions. What will happen if there is a power failure and what will happen if the computer that operates this parking structure crashes? Vehicle owners are going to be very upset when their auto is held hostage due to one failure or the other.
I drove by this the other day and it is indeed progressing rapidly. It will be a great show to watch the cars being shuffled around behind a wall of glass. But I hope that show doesn’t become a tourist attraction that ends up blocking traffic on Sweetzer. I also hope that the whole system is reliable, but only time will tell. I think the City missed an opportunity to buy commercial property along SMB during the Great Recession at bargain prices. I think the $18 million spent on this expensive piece of tech could have been used to buy… Read more »
Great, the invitation for the opening of yet another envelope. !