Downtown’s parking garages are blah—and they don’t have to be

Other metros across the U.S. have drawn on public parking revenue, private donations, and civic energy to splash public art onto their garages.

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I’m not the only one to notice the monuments to meh that are downtown’s parking garages—or to suggest there’s a need to color-zap them to life.  

Look inside the Downtown STL Public Art Plan. Issued in 2018 by a trio of civic groups (the Regional Arts Commission, Downtown STL, Inc., and Explore St. Louis), this document described garages as “priority mural sites” and pushed for, inter alia, “projects that visually improve prominent parking garages and blank walls and use them to convey a sense of welcome.” 

It’s true that a private garage owner has no obligation to help the city convey a sense of welcome. But don’t assume they’ll refuse. Consider, for example, two of the garages specified in the Art Plan as being ripe for a zhuzh: the pair that borders Kiener Plaza Park at its north edge (i.e., Chestnut). Those structures are owned by InterPark, a company headquartered in Chicago. I recently spoke to its vice president of asset management, Brian DeBock. He told me those garages create a “good opportunity for St. Louis” to install some public art. InterPark has allowed it before—for instance, in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. What usually happens, DeBock says, is that a civic or arts organization reaches out to start the conversation; the parties enter into an agreement; and the “cost is typically borne by the entity that wants the installation.” Says DeBock: “If it makes sense, we want to be active civic partners with whatever community we’re in.” 

And note that at least one private owner downtown has already made such a move: The Park Pacific garage at Tucker and Pine, for example, serves as the canvas for “Ribbons of Light,” a temporary LED piece funded by RAC. 

But set aside the private sector: The city itself owns several downtown garages. They’re in prominent spots. The Kiel Center Garage next to Enterprise Center is one example; the Cupples Station garage at Spruce and 11th—visible to every vehicle on nearby Highway 40—is another. They’re managed by the Office of the Treasurer, which oversees city parking. Felice McClendon, a spokeswoman, says the office is prioritizing security upgrades right now but adds that the idea of public art is “firmly on our radar” and that she is “currently in discussion to explore the what/when/how with community partners.” 

Meanwhile, here are four U.S. metros that have found ways to pay for public art. 

SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA

Cost: $25,000

This city commissioned a mural for its Fifth Street Parking Garage and unveiled it in 2022. The artists were Joshua Lawyer & MJ Lindo-Lawyer. According to Tara Thompson, the city’s arts and culture manager, the funding breakdown was $15,000 from meter/garage revenue and $10,000 from its public art fund. 

ROSEMONT, ILLINOIS

Cost: $50,000 (the estimated total for 43 murals)

This village next to O’Hare International Airport hired the Chicago artist Rahmaan Statik, who worked with area kids to paint 43 murals inside the Williams Street Garage. Stacey Shuster, the village’s creative design director, says the cost was paid out of cash on hand in the village’s general funds.

BOULDER, COLORADO

Cost: $122,500

Boulder’s Community Vitality Department chose to spend part of its budget on a piece of art for the public garage at 11th and Spruce, says Brendan Picker-Mahoney, the city’s public art program manager. To commission the piece, the department put out an RFP, and the above proposal by David Franklin and Aaron Whelton emerged victorious. Installation is scheduled for 2024.

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY

Cost: $725,000

Lexington’s parking authority earns revenue entirely from parking fees. Ed Trammell, the authority’s project manager, says that when he came on board about a decade ago, it had just taken ownership of several garages, including the Helix Garage, which needed a top-to-bottom refurbishing. Trammell credits the authority’s board with being “forward-thinking” enough to not only borrow millions in order to shore up all the structures but also to spend $725,000 on the art installation of stainless steel and programmable LED lighting for Helix, shown above.     

Let’s linger for a second on Lexington because it offers a glimpse of why any of this matters. 

The illuminated Helix debuted in 2013. The best part of the story, Trammell recalls, is how the community responded. To quote him at length: “We didn’t have anything like that downtown. It was so cool to see people standing on the sidewalk in front of a parking garage taking selfies for social media. It took on a life of its own. Word got out that we had this thing and we could program whatever color we wanted. Then organizations started reaching out. I’ve got a running calendar. Practically every week, someone reaches out to me and has a cause or effort and they want to raise awareness of. And of course, we’re blue and white for every home game [of the University of Kentucky Wildcats]. It’s been really special.”

Could we have something similar in St. Louis? The aforementioned Art Plan did result, several years ago, in the Downtown St. Louis Public Art Initiative. This effort has gone dormant, however, because of the pandemic, organizational reshuffling, and leadership turnover, says Chloe Smith, the grants and programs manager at RAC. “But we’ve seen a large increase in the public’s desire to see public art,” Smith says. She hears it from residents who travel and see it in other cities; from RAC’s artist grantees; from other civic orgs around town; and even on RAC’s website, images of public art seem to drive clicks. RAC’s core work is grant-making, Smith says, not public art, but RAC has been having internal discussions about playing a role in its production. 

Parking garages, Smith says, have a practical purpose, but they’re also like blank canvases. The fact that some bear graffiti, she says, means folks are already imagining ways to enliven the space.  

Perhaps someday, a St. Louis organization in St. Louis will take the lead and think in such specifics. Until then, here’s what we have: 

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