Learning from the Past: Design of Innovative, Resilient, and Durable Facilities for the Future

Join IPMI’s Planning, Design, & Construction Committee for an interactive Roundtable focused on an important question for every parking professional: What can the deterioration, distress, and failures of existing parking structures teach us about building, maintaining, and managing better facilities for the future?

This engaging discussion will explore the factors that can shorten the service life of parking structures, including design and detailing, construction quality, materials and methods, environmental exposure, deferred maintenance, and inspection and repair practices. We’ll examine how lessons learned from past challenges are influencing today’s approaches to design, construction, durability, quality control, preventive maintenance, rehabilitation, and long-term capital planning.

Participants will also discuss practical issues that parking administrators, owners, and facility managers should understand and monitor to help extend the useful life and safety of their facilities. The conversation will emphasize moving from a reactive “repair when something fails” mindset toward a proactive life-cycle management approach built on regular inspections, preventive maintenance, timely repairs, documentation, and thoughtful planning.

We’ll also explore parking garage inspection requirements and regulatory approaches adopted by New York State, including lessons from their implementation and whether elements of these programs could serve as a model for broader adoption.

Most importantly, this is a Roundtable—not a presentation. Bring your questions, experiences, challenges, successes, and lessons learned. Come ready to exchange ideas with your peers, compare approaches, ask the experts, and leave with practical insights you can apply to your own parking facilities and programs.

Facilitators: 

John Nolan, PTMP, Parking Consultant, retired Managing Director of Transportation and The Campus Service Center at Harvard University. 

Blake Clamp, Associate, Kimley-Horn.