Posted on: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

The American garage: a haven, pop culture icon

By Jeff Baenen
Associated Press

To most Americans, the garage is simply a place to park a car or stash a lawn mower. Maybe sit in a chair, have a beer and watch life pass by the driveway.

Now comes "Garage," a coffee table book that celebrates the history of the humble garage and its role in art and industry, from Apple computers to Walt Disney to Buddy Holly.

"I just felt like it was time for the garage to get its respect," says author Kira Obolensky.

Obolensky maintains that the garage has become the "id" of the house, the refuge where people go to escape, dream and create.

"Garage" (Taunton Press, $32, hardcover) includes more than 200 color photographs of more than 50 garages nationwide. Among those featured is actor Dennis Hopper's garage, which displays cars on a glass-block floor and a contemporary art collection on corrugated-steel walls.

This, as Obolensky puts it, is Garage Beautiful.

Instead of oil-stained floors and cluttered workbenches, the book features garages with cozy offices and play spaces; a garage workshop/studio in Kentucky that contains a collection of model trains and boats; a dual garage-boathouse on a New Hampshire lake; and a 20-car garage in Arizona.

The book provides floor plans and tips on design challenges and solutions, such as adding an office or workshop to a garage, and covers everything from garage sales to garage bands. Obolensky also examines the garage in pop culture. After all, Fonzie lived over the Cunninghams' garage in TV's "Happy Days."

Because of low rent, garages are a favorite retreat for inventors and tinkerers, Obolensky says. She cites garages as the birthplace of such businesses as Ford Motor Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., Medtronic Inc. and Reader's Digest.