Parking and Recreation

Parking and Recreation

Why should your garage take a back seat to the house? These three are active players in their stylish yards

 

Robert Natke four-car

1. AUTO, CONTAINED  In lieu of a structure mimicking his 130-year-old cedar-clad house, Robert Natke of UrbanWorks Architecture built this four-car “auto container,” pairing a traditional lumberyard-pine frame with polycarbonate panels generally used for greenhouses. For this photo, he turned on all 36 fluorescent tube lights inside the structure to spotlight his 1957 Ghia. (The shock of light against the dark sky makes the wood framing, which is painted white, look blue.)

 

Julie Fisher's cedar and Ledgestone garage

2. CEDAR SYMMETRY  When designing this urbane Ravenswood garage, Julie Fisher of fcStudio took her inspiration from the back of the house, which is covered in cedar siding and has an entry and stairwell tower clad in engineered Ledgestone. (The planter at the edge of the garage is crafted from the same material.) Three off-center evergreens keep the look lively.

 

Tom Bassett-Dilley's Oak Park garage

3. A NEAT FEAT  What looks from the alley like a two-car garage accommodates one car under a roof and another on a carport/ patio at the Oak Park home of architect Tom Bassett-Dilley. “We are a one-car family, so I wanted as much backyard space as possible while still meeting the village code for two off-street parking spots,” says Bassett-Dilley, who won a Green Award from the village for his design. He recycled pieces of his old garage’s concrete slab to make patio pavers and also installed a green roof.
 

Photography: (1) Anthony May; (2) Nathan Beckner; (3) Eric Hausman

 

Related:

Great-Garages

 

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