An expansion of Connecticut Children’s in Hartford that would roughly double the size of the hospital could come with an equally imposing $47 million parking garage on the opposite side of Washington Street, rising as high as 8 stories with 900 parking spaces. The proposed parking garage, at the southwest corner of Washington and Lincoln streets, would accompany a new, $280 million tower now under construction across the street on Connecticut Children’s campus. But the garage also is stirring debate in the city’s surrounding Frog Hollow neighborhood, not only for its size but for a design that doesn’t do enough to add life to the streetscape and better blend into the neighborhood. Connecticut Children’s said it has worked with the Frog Hollow Neighborhood Revitalization Zone since last fall to improve its design, adding more storefront space and cloaking the garage with a mesh that would mask the parking decks that could be covered with murals designed by local artists.
$327M Connecticut Children’s Hartford expansion stirs debate with included $47M parking garage