[in-enaction] automation: Parking as a Destination

The 100 parking spaces that Mr. Schneeweiss managed have been replaced, 
below the 24 condos, by 74 spots in New York City’s first automated 
parking garage. Two dozen spaces will be reserved for apartment owners. 
Starting Thursday, the rest will be open to the public — first for 
monthly lessees and, come spring, for drive-ins.

The project is the work of AutoMotion Parking Systems, the American 
subsidiary of Stolzer Parkhaus of Strassburg, Germany. Stolzer Parkhaus 
has built 28 automated garages in 11 countries since its first, in 
Kronach, Germany, in 1996. The software and hardware that moves the cars 
around in the garages were adapted from systems that store materials in 
warehouses.

“This is the future,” Mr. Schneeweiss said during a recent tour of the 
Chinatown garage, shaking his head as if he did not quite believe it yet.

But the future is coming on fast in cities like New York, where shiny 
towers are rising over what had long been parking lots. “There is a 
proliferation of high-rise condo construction in major urban areas,” 
said Donald R. Monahan, vice president of Walker Parking Consultants in 
Greenwood Village, Colo., who follows innovations in the business 
closely. “Usually these have small footprints that do not offer enough 
room for traditional garages.”


cont'd....
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/automobiles/25PARK.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin