The new Mountain Parking garage opened Monday, Jan. 20. This structure adds 825 additional parking spots for faculty and students.
“It’s key that the experience of our campus starts from when you drive on,” Ben Veenendaal, vice president for Planning, Operations and Construction said. “That experience starts from being able to find parking in a beautiful structure that is well-designed.”
Preliminary work on the garage began in April 2023 when major campus utilities such as the fiber that Drescher uses had to be dug up and rerouted to make way for the garage, Veenendaal said. From there, the construction part began in July 2023.
Despite the Franklin and Palisades fires causing delays in the construction of the garage, Clark Construction‘s dedication, hard work and overtime allowed the garage to still open on time, Veenendaal said.
“The fires caused limitations on the contractors being able to come to campus with all the road closures,” Veenendaal said. “Clark Construction came when they could and through the great partnership we have with them we were able to deliver the garage.”
Junior Milena Velez, a commuter student, said she plans to start utilizing the garage as an option when she can’t immediately find parking in Firestone Fieldhouse lot or Banowsky Blvd.
“The garage is going to be the second place that I look,” Velez said. “I used to first check Firestone and Banowsky Blvd before going to George Page to look for parking but now after Banowsky Blvd I’ll start checking the garage.”
Junior Analysa Chavarria said her experience with the garage is good so far.
“This garage has relieved a lot of my stress when it comes to finding parking on campus,” Chavarria said. “It’s great to have it on the Malibu campus because now commuters and faculty members no longer have to wake up super early and stress about finding parking.”
Chavarria said her one wish for the garage is stricter permit restrictions.
“I do wish there are stricter restrictions on where to park because as an upperclassman it’s always hard to find parking and seeing freshman park on the first floor is frustrating,” Chavarria said. “The commuters also only have one floor which is hard since there a lot of commuters.”
The University has wanted to do something like the Mountain for a while, Veenendaal said. It’s been at least 10 years since the University started pushing for the Mountain and the parking structure to happen.
“The structure had to be well-designed in order to maximize the space that we have on campus,” Veenendaal said. “Every part of the design process I thought about the way students would want to experience our campus.”
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Contact Alicia Dofelmier via email: alicia.dofelmier@pepperdine.edu
