What is the automated provisioning?

Automated parking garage in Boston?

• There's been some interest in recent years about having automated parking facilities in U.S. cities, including Boston. It's quite common in other parts of the world, especially in major cities where land prices are at a premium, given that the area required per car for an automated system is far less than that of the park-it-yourself variety. Nothing I've read, though, suggests that Boston has ever had such a system in the past. However, I distinctly recall, sometime back in the 60's or 70's, being with my parents in downtown Boston and having our car parked in such a garage. That is, a system where you (or perhaps an attendant) drive your car onto a platform, whereupon the platform carries your car up to an unoccupied "car apartment" and drops it off there. Does anyone else recall this garage? Is it still in operation? One possibility (for the lack of mention of this facility) is that it is not considered "automated". As I said, I don't recall whether attendants were required to drive the car onto and off of the platform. Perhaps they were, and perhaps, if that was the case, it was thus not considered truly automatic. Still, the system did offer the major benefit of today's automated systems, in that it maximized space efficiency. So again, the question is, does anyone remember this facility, and do you happen to know its fate?

• Answer:

  You may be thinking of the Danker & Donahue garage (I think that's the name) located on Newbury St, near the Commonwealth Ave. end. You give your car to an attendant and they have a platform elevator that brings it up to park it on other levels. I have no idea how long the garage has been there, but it is in an older building, so I suspect its been around for a long time.