Main Street Brackets: Shared Parking in Patchogue — Design Proposal Patchogue, NY

The Village of Patchogue has a busy main street, an active theater, and a budding arts scene that attract a steady flow of visitors who seek parking in one of the Village’s twelve municipal parking lots. These lots are located behind Main Street and are difficult for visitors to find and navigate, resulting in uneven occupancy. Some lots are always full, but many never reach what is considered a critical capacity of 90 percent.

Shared Parking System = Better Parking

To make better use of the parking Patchogue already has, we designed a new mid-block parking deck, designed to be airy, open, and easy to access, as an integral part of a shared parking system. We call this system Brackets: a network of pedestrian pathways, automated signage, and landscape improvements that make it easier to find available parking, and more pleasing to walk through it.

Brackets would help Patchogue optimize its parking by elaborating and amplifying three ideas: 1) facilitating shared parking between the Village’s municipal lots and other parking areas adjacent to them, 2) helping motorists find available parking with an automated metering and way-finding system and 3) creating an identity for each lot. These three ideas are the basis for the three design components of a Bracket.

Network of Pathways and Signage

To help visitors share parking and be willing to park in lots not directly adjacent to their destination, we propose a network of pathways that connect parking lots to each other and to Main Street. These paths provide a comfortable and legible way to walk across back streets and parking lots.

Patchogue has installed new signs to help people find lots, and is set to install a new metering system. We propose to add to this system with way-finding signage that displays parking counts for each lot. This automated system displays parking counts that are relayed from meters in each lot, and directs motorist to available spaces.

Landscape Improvements

To help visitors navigate parking lots, Patchogue has named them by number (e.g., Lot 1, Lot 2). To further build a character for each lot, we propose a series of unique landscapes for each. Painted pathways along each Bracket would provide a visual armature to which local property owners could contribute. A public process would engage stakeholders to participate in the design and financing of new landscape improvements. This could be a way for tenants to take ownership over the lots they use and also for the Village to differentiate its expansive supply of parking and increase its appeal.

Key Facts

• Current municipal downtown parking supply, in lots and on streets: 1,733
• Current surface parking spaces on lot 1: 213
• Proposed parking spaces on lot 1, including new garage: 503
• Net new parking spaces: 280
• PLUS components: automated metering system; way-finding signage; landscape improvements along Bracket paths, alleys, and crosswalks

Economic Impacts (from parking consultant Gerard Giosa)

• Shared / Smart parking; connectivity
• Concept can support over $15,000,000 in new downtown investment
• Ability to build 30 percent less new parking could save the Village $2,700,000 in new garage construction
• Way-finding system can reduce vehicle-miles driven over 150,000 miles per year
• Connected “brackets” encourage new economic development / investment to all corners of the Village

Project Credits

dub Studios
Michael Piper, Project Team Leader
Ultan Byrne, Designer
Frank Ruchala, Planner
Sarah Williams, Designer
Interns: Yi Ping See, Rebecca Taylor, and Azadeh Zaferani