New A&M Parking Garage To Open In 2020

The Association of Former Students

By Susan "Sue" Owen '94

Published: December 11, 2019

[Update, Dec. 2019: A&M estimates the garage will be substantially completed in July 2020 with additional work complete in October 2020.]

Construction on Texas A&M’s next parking garage will start in March, A&M announced.

The Polo Rd. Garage will open in 2020 on the northeast side of campus, between University Drive and A&M’s Polo Rd. that passes near the Bonfire Memorial.

It’s one of 10 new parking garages, spaced mostly around the perimeter of campus, that were recommended for coming years in A&M’s 2017 Campus Master Plan.

Possible future garages, including the northeast campus site for 2020's Polo Rd. Garage, are labeled "P" in dark purple, with the 6 existing garages marked "P" in dark green, on page 167 of the 2017 plan.

The campus plan is not set in stone, but sets direction for the future. Read our summary here, including future dorms, protection of historic buildings and creating social “quadrangles.”

The five-story Polo Rd. Garage will be on the site of parking Lot 50, next to the Emerging Technologies Building (built in 2011). It will contain a recreation center, food court and office space, A&M said.

The garage is part of A&M's continuing shift toward making the inner parts of its campus primarily a pedestrian and bike zone, according to the 2017 plan. Inner parking lots are being replaced by green spaces and new structures. Drivers will mostly park around the edge of campus, then switch to walking, cycling or campus transit.

The area of the Polo Rd. Garage is described as “Campus Front” in the plan, and its future could include more academic buildings, a new landscaped campus gateway, and retail and dining on buildings’ ground floors. All plans leave clear space around the Bonfire Memorial and its trees.

Those changes could be far in the future. The 2017 plan noted that there wasn’t a current need for complete development, but that it was a good idea to have a plan for how the area could develop in a useful fashion without infringing on the campus’ identity.

Proposed scenario for "Campus Front" development on page 99 of the 2017 plan.

Read more about what could be coming in the first, second and third phases of the campus plan.

Read full article