It's Time to Think About Living in Parking Garages

The tower at 4th and Columbia will be the tallest in Seattle, a 1,029-foot, $290 million monument to the city's recent, tech-flavored success. And, if the current plans are approved, the tower will include a quirky twist: four levels of above-grade parking, designed to someday take on new life as apartments and offices. LMN Architects, which designed the project, wants the tower to survive 50 to 100 years. "If that's the case, we do need to make sure--I feel we do have have the responsibility--that if the parking uses do change, we design to be able to adapt to that change," says John Chau, a partner at the firm. The change he's talking about is the coming transformation to a car-free-ish future.