MULTI-STOREYED CAR PARKS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28157, 21 December 1956, Page 9

MULTI-STOREYED CAR PARKS

Private Initiative In Germany

Taking its cue from America, West Germany is supplying its cities with multi-storeyed garages to satisfy the parking needs of its growing army of motorists.

The multi-level parking buildings now being erected in West German cities owe Their existence primarly to private initiative, since the municipalities were, as a rule, unwilling to provide funds for an undertaking which would pay off only in the long run.

Hamburg heads the list of West German cities most successfully combatting the growing scarcity of parking space. It has undertaken the construction of three multi-storeyed garages, one already in use while the second is nearing completion. In addition, quite a number of Hamburg’s large office buildings offer much parking space. One of these buildings can accommodate 400 automobiles.

Quite in the neighbourhood of Cologne’s famous cathedral a multistoreyed garage building recently opened for business. The Federal Republic’s first post-war building of this kind was built in Dusseldorf in 1953.

West Berlin has its “Kant Garage,” which survived World War 11. In Frankfurt, the municipal authorities themselves took the initiative and built a multi-level garage in their city. These buildings usually have five storeys and are fitted with ramps, enabling the cars to drive right up to even the highest platforms. Karlsruhe boasts of West Germany’s first “auto silo,” a fully automatic multi-level building for parking. In Munich and Wiesbaden similar buildings, operating on the push-button system, are under construction.

One of West Germany’s big department stores uses the roofs of its buildings to park customers’ automobiles. All the department stores of this concern in Aachen, Kassel and Ludenscheid are equipped with such facilities. Cars are either driven up a ramp or moved by elevators.