University of Houston Parking Garage 1A

Parking Garage 1A is the third UH garage designed by Walter P Moore for students and staff members. It was designed to be flexible and to change for different uses and functions both inside the garage as well as externally to the garage.

The garage has entrances and exits on both the north and west sides to help facilitate efficiency and the ramping layout was designed to handle the influx of traffic while being user friendly. The garage has no “hidden spaces” as the driver can see all of the available parking. Empty spaces are identified more quickly therefore reducing the amount of backtracking drivers will need to do. In addition, the garage has a vehicular bridge over an existing driveway and MEP area (about 60’ of total width) to the nearby Welcome Center Garage (also designed by Walter P Moore).

Parking Garage 1A's design incorporates an AVI system and proximity card capability but can be expanded to include a pay on foot system for visitors. The ground floor is currently segregated for staff use and includes an overflow gate which leads from the ground floor to the ramping system. If desired, this segregated floor could easily be converted for use by visitors or could incorporate student areas in the future through programming changes which would not require physical changes to the garage.

An expansion of the garage to the south, over the multi-modal facility is made possible by the placement of the southeastern elevator core and locating the elevator core on the northwest corner nearest the epicenter of the campus.