New Condos - With Car Elevators!
I am going to have to break my “Architecture ‘Round the World” series just for this one article! I was looking at a magazine we get every once in a while called Today’s Custom Home that features residential homes and new features like the latest updates in kitchens. In the latest issue, there was an article called “Curtain Opens on Uber-Elite Encore.” In downtown Charlotte there is a new residential building that is rising right next to and part of Charlotte’s Carolina Theater. It will have 20 condos on the upper floors of the 20 story high rise and commercial places on the lower floors including a completely renovated Carolina Theater. But there is a unique challenge to this building - parking for cars that belong to the owners of the multi-million dollar condos. But the builders of the building - Pursuit Group - have come up with their own completely new solution.

This building won’t have a parking garage underneath the structure. But it will have garages-private 2 to 4 car garages for each condo. It won’t have a garage on top of the building or even on the side of the buildings. They are going to put them right next to the condos themselves. They are using a system of freight elevators that are accessed from the street level of the building. The cars drive into the building and get on the elevator. The elevator then takes the car and passenger to their level of the building and the doors open and they are in their garage, that even connects to the condo. They even have a video that shows how the elevators work. According to the magazine, there is nothing like this in any residential building in the whole United States. This idea is completely revolutionary. The Encore website can tell you more about this great new architectural design.
*Information from www.encorecharlotte.com and from “Curtains Open on Uber-Elite Encore” p. 152 of Today’s Custom Home*