Mobility, Robocars, EVs, Drones Sparking Radical Architectural Designs

Converting the places you fill up to oases to get fit, creating drone-friendly office buildings with convertible floors and eliminating millions of excess parking spaces by turning decks and lots into hotels or parks. 

All those scenarios are direct results of the march to a world where private vehicle ownership diminishes, replaced by one where mobility services and robocars rule the roads, according to the CEO of a global architectural design firm.

“Mobility is a huge opportunity to reshape the future of our cities, taking cities back for people, for the human experience instead of being choked by cars,” said Andy Cohen, CEO of San Francisco-based Gensler in a phone interview. “We see the future of cities as autonomous vehicles will improve our lives, and will also take our city streets back for people, improving the human experience. 

Gensler is already working on some of these projects with a wide range of clients. The most visible is the Gensler-designed Epic office building in Hollywood where video streaming giant Netflix is a tenant. 

The 15-story office tower features four above- grade levels that can convert to two office floors with potential for mezzanines. Alternate floors have been designed for eventual removability and both levels are wired for all stalls to be electric. The rooftop has a mail facility to distribute drone-delivered packages and, on the other side of the roof, there is a lounge-lobby that designed to be a terminal for passenger drone flights. 

A key feature, said Cohen, is the de-emphasis of parking in favor of facilitating ride-share pickups and drop-offs in autonomous vehicles.

“In the future all people are going to be picked up and dropped off at the front door of the building,” said Cohen. “So we designed this building into the future so people can be dropped off and picked up inside the parking structure. We created a VIP pickup and drop-off area, or coach area, that becomes the front door of the building. We think in the future all buildings will have to be designed this way.”

Indeed, Cohen keeps coming back to the design and use of current parking facilities as something that must change as the predicted boom in shared mobility services significantly reduces private vehicle ownership and the need for parking spaces. 

“Most cars are parked 95% of the time in our city streets. We see the ability for the autonomous car of the future where cars will be circulating and not parking.” said Cohen. “What we’re telling our clients is you have to design flexibility into the parking because we know there won’t be parking in the future. Therefore if we’re building parking, make sure it’s above grade, not below grade, because below grade is gonna be even harder to retrofit, but to create parking with flat floors, not with sloped floors…you can adapt them later for other uses, for office use, for residential use, for retail use, but not parking.”

Gensler has applied some of those principles by converting a parking deck at Northwestern University into a 12-thousand square foot innovation incubator now called The Garage.

At the Cincinnati, Ohio headquarters of data analytics and marketing firm 84.51˚, Gensler designed the conversion of three floors of an indoor parking area into future office space. 

One of the more novel projects Gensler is working on is with sporting goods company Reebok to imagine new uses for the 125-thousand gas stations in the U.S., converting them from filling stations to fitness stations and perhaps a place to swap a dead electric vehicle battery for a fresh one. 

“These 125-thousand gas stations are prime real estate in all of our major cities around the world,” said Cohen. We, at Gensler, took the initiative to work with Reebok and said, what if we retrofitted these gas stations into fitness centers, into health and wellness centers in the core of our urban cities? These can be great places where people can recharge, can do fitness, basically a health club, but a really positive way to take what is a gas station right now and turn it into a real great human experiences.”

He also sees converting gas stations into parks or other green spaces. 

Far above ground level, the prospect of mobility by drone hovers overhead, leading Gensler to join seven other architecture and engineering firms selected to create a concept for one of ride-share company Uber’s future Uber Air Skyports. Gensler’s concept is called CitySpace. The idea, Cohen says, is to create an airborne link between autonomous ground transportation and quick, unmanned flights to a final destination.

“We looked at either new skyports or retrofitting existing parking structures in cities where people can arrive in their autonomous vehicle or ride-share then get on an Uber Elevate that would take you from destination to destination by air,” explained Cohen.  

Uber is planning on a 2023 launch of Uber Air in cities that include Dallas, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia. 

Speaking of air travel, Cohen believes airport design will also be affected by the expected decline of self-driven vehicles, predicting parking lots and decks will be converted into pickup and drop-off areas with excess real estate reclaimed for other purposes. He sees the same conversion for the vast seas of blacktop at shopping malls. 

But what about how our living spaces are designed? Well…if you’re only sharing rides and not providing them, then perhaps all that space devoted to garages will be designed for other purposes, Cohen says. 

He admits, some ideas must be held in abeyance awaiting the right conditions before being put into action, but it’s not too soon to make some changes and plan for the future. 

“This is the game changing transformation,” Cohen pronounces. “We can take our city streets back, not for cars and buses, choking our city streets, but back for urban, incredible, vibrant living again.”