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Old Posted Sep 6, 2015, 5:13 AM
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dleung dleung is offline
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Does underground parking exist in Chicago?

I'm curious as to why it seems as if almost all multi-level parking in Chicago are in above ground parkades. Does it have something to do with water tables or soil conditions? In Toronto and Vancouver, all new multi-level parking is underground,...even for waterfront sites, excavations for condo parking routinely go 4-5 stories below lake/sea level. ..
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Old Posted Sep 6, 2015, 3:11 PM
emathias emathias is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dleung View Post
I'm curious as to why it seems as if almost all multi-level parking in Chicago are in above ground parkades. Does it have something to do with water tables or soil conditions? In Toronto and Vancouver, all new multi-level parking is underground,...even for waterfront sites, excavations for condo parking routinely go 4-5 stories below lake/sea level. ..
I can't speak to why it isn't more common, but to answer your first question, yes, there are a decent number of examples of underground parking in Chicago. It's certainly not super-common, but it does exist. The Sears Tower has some. The AT&T building has some. The building with the AMC River East 21 theatre has some. And there are other examples.
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Old Posted Sep 6, 2015, 4:29 PM
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ardecila ardecila is offline
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The Grant Park garages are underground. The Museum of Science and Industry has a truly massive underground garage, and a bunker where the U505 submarine is stored.

Short answer, Chicago is built on a swamp. Retaining the soft clay soil on a deep excavation, resisting hydrostatic pressure, and the ongoing pumping needed to keep the facility dry are all very expensive. Other cities may have rock or more stable soil types to excavate with a lower water table.

They may also have higher land values, so developers can afford more expensive features like underground parking. I know in DC, almost every new building gets underground parking, but the buildings are also subject to a strict height cap so developers are forced to build underground parking or they would be losing rentable SF to build parking.
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Old Posted Sep 6, 2015, 5:35 PM
bnk bnk is offline
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Millennium park parking has has 2,126 spaces and 1.0 million square feet of parking space alone in one space.


http://www.millenniumgarages.com/mil...m-park-garage/
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