On our road to a cleaner world, green architecture plays an important role and now we can be proud of the first LEED certified parking garage in the United States. The Santa Monica Civic Center exceeds a big part of the LEED guidelines with the help of the solar photovoltaic array on the roof. Also, the construction materials used for the parking structure were recycled and they are completed with low-VOC paints.

The Santa Monica Civic Center was designed by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects and Planners, it features 6 above-ground stories and 1 ½ underground and the total is enough for 900 parking spaces. 14 of the 900 spaces were designed especially for electric vehicles and the parking provides free space for bicycles destined to “encourage alternate transportation modes.” For the future we can hope that all 900 space will be for electric vehicles, but that’s for the times when we will ignore gas-powered vehicles.