I can easily remember garage doors greeting visitors to our homes in the early 80’s. Having 3 separate garage doors that dominated the front elevation of the home design was cool. Kind of like dual/quad exhaust pipes on an automobile. It told the world that we had money, the power to buy more than a single vehicle.

Here we are in the age with electric and hybrid cars being a viable alternative. We’re choking on the fumes. Multiple car garages are still important, but the blatant promotion of them in custom home design has lost its fad appeal.

We’ve lost our interest in having doors act as a status symbol. Designers and architects have moved the garage away from the front door. Now side load garages are preferred and tucking the doors under an extended soffit, or eave is vogue. As custom home builders, designers, and architects down play the ostentatious doors, it actually opens up new design challenges, finding interesting ways to keep that 3-car garage in the plans while not greeting visitors next to the front door.