Patchogue Tapped for Parking Design Competition

Patchogue is one of four communities being focused on for a parking competition which will see four architectural firms compete to develop new concepts in parking design.

The Long Island Index’s Build a Better Burb: ParkingPLUS Design Challenge will also develop concepts for Ronkonkoma, Rockville Centre and Westbury. Ann Golub, director of the Long Island Index, said that over 4,000 acres of surface parking lots in and around Long Island’s downtowns have been identified by the Index. The Index is published by the Rauch Foundation.

“Imagine how we could better use that space!” Golub said. “That’s what these four firms will be doing in order to engage Long Islanders in re-thinking the parking potential of our downtown areas.”

Patchogue Village Mayor Paul Pontieri told Patch Wednesday that the Rauch Foundation will select architects and engineers to create new parking concepts for the downtown area. According to Newsday, dub studios, who has offices in New York City and Los Angeles, will be focused on Patchogue. Firms designing concepts for the other three communities will be focused on the area near their Long Island Rail Road stations.

Pontieri clarified to Patch that Patchogue’s participation in the competition will come at no cost to the village, and results should be made available in January.

Parking scarcity has been a hot topic in Patchogue Village, with parking meters coming sometime this fall in an effort to bring in revenue to put toward parking expansion. Pontieri said that this competition could have the firms determine whether or not creating tiered parking structures would benefit the Village, which is currently expanding as the New Village development continues its construction at the Main Street and North Ocean Avenue intersection.

Pontieri said that this is not the first time the Rauch Foundation has done work with Patchogue, as the organization has previously chosen the Village to focus on affordable housing and diversity issues.

What are your thoughts on new parking designs being developed as part of a competition? What ideas would you try to develop if you were an architect competing in this? Talk about it in the comments below.

Reporting from Stephen Bronner of Rockville Centre Patch contributed to this story.