The parking garage, built in the 100 block of East King Street, mimics architectural features of neighboring properties.
The architects who designed the East King Street parking garage four years ago were faced with a dilemma: how to make a modern garage for automobiles fit the look of a city block built before cars existed.
What MM Architects did was go back in time. They looked beyond the buildings on the site, built 50 years ago, and found photographs of the buildings that stood on the 100 block of East King Street a century ago.
While not a reproduction, the eventual garage facade design was inspired by those earlier buildings and mimics their style, scale, texture and color. Window openings were patterned on nearby buildings, complete with metal frames that give the look of sashes.
At street level, there are two occupied storefront offices.
The result was a garage that blended with the surrounding streetscape, said Maryann Marotta, MM principal architect.
It's a garage that doesn't look like a garage, Mayor Rick Gray pronounced at its opening.
"We worked very diligently and put a lot of time and effort and money into that facade," Lancaster Parking Authority Chairman Mark Vergenes said Thursday.
Now, three years after the $14 million garage opened, the Parking Authority is being recognized for its efforts.
The garage will be the recipient of the recognition award for a commercial project from the Charlotte Street Association.
The award is one of 11 properties to be recognized this year by the civic association. For 42 years, the Charlotte Street Association has been presenting awards to residents and businesses which have "add to the quality of life in the city" through the beautification of their properties.
This year's honorees will be showcased in a photographic exhibit this evening, First Friday, at White Good advertising agency, 226 N. Arch St., from 5 to 9 p.m. The event also marks White Good's 30th anniversary.
The awards will be presented at the meeting of Lancaster City Council, Tuesday, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in council chambers, Southern Market Center, 100 S. Queen St.
Other properties and owners receiving awards are:
• 154 E. James St., W. Scott Stober.
• 719 Poplar St., Chester and Lenora Kilburn.
• 151-153 E. Vine St., James F. Mummert and Terry A. Scheneck.
• 238 Lancaster Ave., Hugh J. and Pamela G. McGettigan.
• 233 N. Cherry St., Elizabeth J. Seiple Murphy.
• 226 E. Frederick St., Larmie Gulderen.
• 347 W. Grant St., Kevin and Lisa Molloy.
• 315 W. King St., La Costena Restaurant sign, Haydee Davis.
• 38 N. Ann St., North Ann Street Mural, Carlos and Joshua Graupera, artists.
• 750 Poplar St., Poplar Street Mural, Two Dudes Painting Co., owners and artists.
