Lume Menlo Park’s Innovative Parking Solution

Lume Menlo Park opened in late 2024.  Located in north Menlo Park and adjacent to the San Francisco Bay, the project consists of twin residential buildings with 220 units each creating 440 multi-family units with 15% below market rate units and 490 above grade parking spaces. Located adjacent to major technology offices, this project fulfills the housing demand for employees wanting to live near their workplace.

This forward looking project, located in a FEMA flood zone, prohibited below grade parking along with a zoning height restriction limiting area available for parking. This led to exploring innovative parking solutions, proposed by Watry Design, the parking consultant.  As Design/Entitlement Architect, Heller Manus led the team during the Planning Approval phase with BDE as AOR. In the end, a high-density fully automated parking system was selected for its ability to meet the parking requirements within a limited area while maximizing the unit count.

Each building has its own separate automated parking system. Residents enter the building along an extended drive aisle where dynamic signage directs them to one of three available transfer portals that contain a turntable. After parking the vehicle on the turntable, they will exit and follow instructions on a panel located outside the portal to signal the system to park the car. A dolly then retrieves the car from the locked portal and transfers it into the parking storage area.  While the vehicle is stored, the parking system can be programmed to charge electric vehicles with a Level 2 charger using a robotic arm to attach and detach the EV charging plug. The residents can use an app on their smartphone to monitor their vehicle charging along with requesting their vehicle to be retrieved prior to departure.  When a resident returns for their vehicle, they are once more directed to an available transfer portal. After they input the required information, the system retrieves their car. Once it is delivered to the portal, the turntable will rotate the car so the driver can drive straight out of the facility. 

You can view a video of the fully automated parking system in action from the link below.
Vimeo link