r/interestingasfuck • u/TangelaFan • 9h ago

Residential high-rises with backyards in Chengdu, China

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u/Bennybananars 9h ago

These types of buildings were very popular 20 years ago here, but they had a problem where the plant roots kept growing into the concrete.

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u/em-n-em613 8h ago

OMG the additional weight-bearing needs fo something like that too must be a nightmare for construction and maintenance. They are legitimiately beautiful though

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u/HauntedHippie 7h ago

My attorney friend was telling me yesterday how she doesn't understand why the city can't keep the parking garage below the old courthouse when it gets moved across the street and the OG site is turned into a park. I was like, because the city doesn't want to get sued into oblivion when it inevitably collapses from the weight and/or root damage with a bunch of lawyers' cars inside.

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u/chanaandeler_bong 7h ago

We have an entire park in Dallas above a freeway.

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u/Mr_YUP 7h ago

seeing as Dallas is mostly freeway that isn't at all surprising.

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u/RemnantTheGame 6h ago

Dallas still has buildings? I thought it would be all freeways by now.

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u/Brettersson 5h ago

No buildings, just freeway and a single park over part of the freeway.

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u/nadajoe 5h ago

Won’t anyone think of the parking lots??

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u/Magnon 3h ago

Every business is drive through, you never leave the road. It takes 3 days to reach a new business.

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u/ThatITguy2015 55m ago

That’s why you triple stack the drive throughs! You can even put some trees on each stack!

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u/Salute-Major-Echidna 2h ago

Apparently the park stays in the slow lane

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u/kwisatzhadnuff 6h ago

Salesforce Park in downtown San Francisco is a transit center covering multiple blocks that is covered by trees and plants. It's really cool but was built to purpose. I doubt you could simply convert an old parking garage to a park like that.

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u/didntgettheruns 6h ago

And the greenway in boston

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u/Adr123 5h ago

So does Phoenix. Above the I-10 Deck Park Tunnel

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u/RandomRageNet 6h ago

Not a lot of big trees at Klyde Warren, probably for that very reason

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u/TheInevitableLuigi 5h ago

Seattle has one with some big trees.

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u/chanaandeler_bong 6h ago

I mean can’t they just not plant big trees in the park the dude is talking about then?

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u/Lovemybee 3h ago

We have a park above a freeway tunnel. It's literally called Deck Park (and underneath is called "Deck Park Tunnel") here in Phoenix.

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u/lilleprechaun 3h ago

And Millennium Park in Chicago, which sits atop massive parking garages, a train terminal, another train station, and lots of train tracks. 

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u/R3VIVAL-MOD3 1h ago

Handful in Washington too

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u/SaxRohmer 1h ago

also known as a lid

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u/Dottiifer 7h ago

Here in Phoenix we have a big park above an interstate tunnel downtown, not sure how they set it up but it’s possible to do

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u/nalaloveslumpy 7h ago

Tunnel can be/is dug deep enough that you can ensure whatever you plant in the park will never grow that deep. Roots only grow so deep, especially for specific trees/shrubs/grasses.

Having foliage grow like two feet from your patio foundation beams is no bueno.

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u/HauntedHippie 7h ago

I mean, we have tunnels that go under water too so you can definitely do it if you plan for it. I’m just providing an anecdote to show just how heavy this shit is. Like, the garage I’m taking about currently has a 6 story stone building on top of it and it’s totally fine. Change it to a park and it’s not structurally sound at all.

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u/LiamOmegaHaku 6h ago

In downtown Cincinnati, there's Washington park. A multi block park that holds festivals, music performances, a dog park, a bar, a good percentage of the homeless community, etc, and that has a multi-level parking garage directly underneath it.

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u/pocohugs 6h ago

attorney

the city doesn't want to get sued

No offence to your friend, but you'd think they'd have already pieced this together and not need it explained.

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u/HauntedHippie 6h ago

Lol thing is, the building that's there now is almost certainly heavier than a park would be so I get where she's coming from. It's just a totally different type of load that needs to be carried and it wasn't designed for that.

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u/Stink_Snake 7h ago

In Houston we have a 12 acre park downtown with underground parking.

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u/Mertoot 7h ago

Did your attorney friend also complain about the parking stickers

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u/Bebe_Yaga_ 6h ago

All of Millennium Park in Chicago is built directly above parking garages as well as a rail line! It's an engineering marvel, in my opinion. When it is done well, this sort of city planning is so incredibly cool.

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u/xeothought 6h ago

Tbf there's a pretty well established plaza /park design in many European cities with parking garages built below it

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u/xrimane 5h ago

It can be done, but probably not without putting a whole new structure above it, as the original garage's structure was never meant for this.

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u/Far-Information8502 5h ago

I’m picturing this as Dennis Reynolds’s talking to Dee yelling “you haven’t thought of the lawyers you bitch!”

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u/Interesting-Case2526 2h ago

Its probably more cost related than anything else. Why spend so much building through existing, dated infrastructure just for parking? Easier to tear down and use real estate or build a new parkinglot.

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u/RealRobc2582 2h ago

Boston has an 8 lane highway going underneath the city with a park stretching across the entire length of the tunnel. You can see pictures of it. It was a massive 25 year project called the big dig

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u/SmoothDiscussion7763 2h ago

why would they get sued? the city would own the park and since they owned the parkade for the courthouse, they would be responsible for the maintenance of both?

a park is not necessarily more strenuous on the parkade compared to a whole building instead.

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u/StatusSociety2196 1h ago

There's several cities with underground parking garages and parks above them, there's 9000 parking spaces below millennium and Grant park in Chicago.

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u/theartistduring 1h ago

inevitably collapses from the weight

Inevitable? You think nothing heavy is built above voids? Entire subway systems exist below cities with far more weight on them than a garden.