What's in Those Garages

In my weekly persual of the Star Tribune Homes section, and particularly my hate-reading of its new-house floor plans, I often exclaim at the size of the garages. I remember just one design that didn't have a garage at all, and other than that, I don't believe there's been one that didn't have at least a two- to two-and-a-half car space. Frequently it's a three-car size with an additional workshop built in.

It think that's mostly about car storage (and junk storage in our over-stuffed consumerist country), more than anything else, but maybe it's partly a romantic notion about the possibilities of garages, too, as represented by this compilation of images:


That collage was posted to Twitter by Dallas urbanist and planner Rik Adamski along with this thought:

The actual moral of this story: These companies exist because they were able to test ideas at low cost and low risk, often in violation of local zoning laws.

Which I immediately marked to save because it's true. And then Salt Lake City transportation planner Tom Millar made it even better with this:

Actually, the moral of the story is that land and the buildings on them are much more valuable for idea creation, entrepreneurship, and housing than they are for storing motor vehicles (which sit idle, on average, for 95% of the time).

Which ties directly back into the thoughts I have when I look at the Strib's house plans, which sometimes have garage square-footage equal to half the first floor of the house. How much smaller could that house be, or how much more living space for more people could it have in it? How multi-generational could that house be, or how much more work-from-home could it include, if it wasn't for car storage?

But both Adamski and Millar are correct. Entrepreneurs need access to cheap (or free!) work space, and garages-for-cars are a waste of space.